


Yu-Gi-Oh!: School For the Damned

by NyanBerri



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bakura Has ADHD, Bakura drops all the f-bombs, Card Games, Comedy, Deathshipping, Derogatory Language (Chapter 2 only), Eventual Romance, Explicit Language, Has Abridged Series jokes as references, I don't actually know how Duel Monsters works so I'll just wing it during duels, Implied Chaseshipping, Lots of movie references, M/M, Mixes elements of the manga and Japanese and English animes, One-Sided Chibishipping, One-Sided Ripshipping, Slice of Life, Tags subject to constant change, The Bakuras are british, The Mariks don't show up for the first four chapters, The school is half American and half Japanese since I can't write a strictly Japanese school, Thief King Bakura has his fan name Akefia, Thiefshipping, Threat of Sexual Abuse (Chapter 3 only), Yami and hikari pairs are siblings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-30 14:06:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 46,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10878354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyanBerri/pseuds/NyanBerri
Summary: Bakura and his family move from England to Japan due to his father's job. His first day of school starts off like any other, by sleeping in class.Once he meets Atem Muto, Bakura is forced to butt heads with Seto Kaiba, meet the foreign exchange student of his dreams, play card games, and fight against a seemingly unbeatable Egyptian destiny.Alternate Title: Bakura Tries to Stab People





	1. Destiny's Bag of Holding

**Author's Note:**

> I try to be thorough, but please let me know of any errors you find!

The desk was cold and rough. Too uncomfortable. It didn't help lower the tension of the moment. He picked his head up from the desk and pulled away a few strands of white hair that got caught between his cheek and the desk. Speaking of, he couldn't see it, but his whole cheek was red from leaving it pressed against the desk for so long. It was all the more noticeable thanks to his pale skin.

He felt somewhat disoriented. He must have dozed off for a bit at some point. A nap wasn't the best way to start the new school year, nor was it great for relieving him of the awkwardness of being at a new school in a completely different country.

He glanced around the classroom with quite the dazed look on his face. He was further back in the room, sort of to the right from the teacher’s perspective. Who was his teacher? Oh right, some woman. He couldn't remember the name, but she definitely wore too much make up.

He turned his head to the left and was captivated by the view out the window. It wasn't anything special, nothing newsworthy either from what he could tell, he just had his head down long enough that the light from outside was enough to draw him in like a moth. He stared outside with his mouth agape and his eyes half lidded. 

It took him a second before he regained control from the window and whipped his head to the other side, coming eye to eye with the guy sitting next to him. They both looked somewhat shocked to see the other, like they couldn't believe the other was able notice him.

The guy staring at him was an interesting sight. With red eyes framed by blond bangs and an almost star like black shape on his head outlined with red. Was that… his hair? It must take a lot to style it that way.

The two teens simultaneously looked away from each other and towards the teacher. She seemed to be going off about something related to attendance. He wasn't bothered enough to listen closely. He folded his arms over his desk and laid his head back down, his eyes slowly closing again.

“-Bakura!”

He threw his head up suddenly at the sound of his name.

“Are you here or not?” The teacher said, scanning the classroom.

Realizing she was checking attendance, Bakura lazily threw his arm up in the air. “Here.” He mumbled, obviously still tired.

“Thank you for finally hearing me. Next time don't sleep in my class.” She said to him before continuing down the class list.

Bakura let out a grunt of acknowledgement before putting his head back on his desk. He couldn't focus on falling asleep as the teacher's voice was so loud now that he couldn't help but listen to her. Each name she called out made him curious as to what the student the name belonged to looked like.

“Atem Muto.”

“Here.”

Bakura saw the guy sitting next to him raise his hand out of the corner of his eye. So the weird haired fellow was named Atem Muto. An odd name. Must have been foreign. It reminded him of his older brother’s name. Now that Bakura thought about it, Atem did look like he had a bit of a tan. Maybe he was mixed or something.

He turned his head to the other side and stared squinty-eyed out the window. The sunlight was starting to annoy him. He internally flinched when some locks of hair slipped in front of his face, but he quickly moved them behind his ear. He was just moments away from drifting off to sleep again… when the bell rang and his head jolted up from the desk.

Partial heart attack aside, Bakura rubbed his eyes as he grabbed his bag and stood up. He stumbled for a second, still in someway half asleep, but nonetheless made it outside the classroom and into the hall at the exact same time as Atem. Bakura didn't pay him any mind… until it became obvious that the two were still walking down the hall together. They glanced to each other for a second, but quickly looked away.

Bakura made it to his next class… at the exact same time as Atem. They walked into the classroom together and stopped for a moment for more awkward eye contact.

“Well… it seems our destinies are intertwined.” Atem said, somewhat as an icebreaker.

“Pah! Destiny.” Bakura snarked as he walked away and sat at a desk in the back corner.

Atem followed close behind and sat in front of him. “What, don't believe in destiny?” He questioned.

“Whether or not I believe in destiny isn't the point. That was just bloody cliché.” Bakura retorted.

Atem stared at Bakura curiously for a moment, unsure if that was really an English word he heard or not. “Are you foreign?”

“Are you?” Bakura sarcastically replied.

Atem paused as if he was trying to figure out the answer for himself. “Technically? I mean, I am a quarter Egyptian, but I've lived here my whole life.”

Bakura’s interest was clearly piqued as he leaned onto his desk and closer to Atem. “I'm half British. Lived there my whole life until this past summer.”

“Oh, how unique. I didn't notice it at first but the accent is certainly thick.” Atem pointed out.

Bakura scowled. “Problem with it?” 

Realizing he probably didn't word that the best way, Atem quickly tried to come up with a way to fix his previous statement. “W-well, no. I didn't mean it as a bad thing, I was just making an-”

“Alright class! First day back to the same old school for many of you, so let's make this introduction short and simple.” The teacher announced and interrupted Atem.

The two teens collectively decided to drop the subject in favor of listening to the teacher, or in Bakura’s case, going back to taking a nap. Before he was fully out again, Bakura momentarily thought of how Ryo was doing on his first day.

_'I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. Oh bugger I want to go hoooome!!'_

“Ryo Bakura?” The teacher called out.

“Home! I-I-I mean h-here!” Ryo’s face burned up and he shoved his head in his hands to hide himself from the embarrassment.

_'Oh Big Brother, I want to go home! And I don't just mean home, I want to go back to our old home. Where we had a backyard and the whole place to ourselves and a much bigger bedroom and a dining room separate from the living room! And I want you here so I won't have to be so bloody scared!'_

“Hey, Yug. See that kid over there? The one-”

“Katsuya Jonouchi?”

“Here! The one with the white hair.” Jonouchi whispered to the kid in front of him.

“Huh? Oh yeah-”

“Yugi Muto?”

“Here! I see him. What about him?” Yugi questioned.

“You, uh, you see how all the girls in class are starin’ at him?” Jonouchi pointed out.

Indeed, every girl in the classroom, about twelve, had their eyes focused on Ryo with big grins on their faces. It didn't help that he was sitting exactly in the middle of the classroom and felt completely surrounded. It wasn't too hard to tell that Ryo was shaking hard enough to also shake his desk. Didn't seem like any of the girls cared that they were clearly making him uncomfortable.

“On one hand I feel bad. On the other, I'm jealous.” Yugi muttered.

“I know right? How do you win over girls just like that and not even like the attention!?” Jonouchi whisper yelled and clenched a fist.

“Maybe it's the hair.” Yugi wondered aloud.

“Waah? Yug… If hair won over girls, you and Atem would be swarmed with ‘em twenty-four seven.” Jonouchi complained.

“I don't know Jonouchi. With your hair I think there should at least be a girl or two interested in you also.” Yugi said as he patted his blond friend’s head.

Jonouchi stared at Yugi with slight annoyance on his face and gently pushed the other’s hand away. “Yeah well, since neither of us have a single chick lookin’ at us, it can't be the hair.”

“The eyes.”

“Yugi.”

“Okay, not helping.”

“So class, since it's the first day and I have nothing else to say you all can relax and chat for the rest of class.” The teacher said, causing the male students to quickly become loud with small groups sitting together, all trying to talk over each other.

All the girls instead clambered around Ryo and practically suffocated him, causing Jonouchi to scowl at the sight.

“Hey Ryo~ Are you new here? If you'd like, I can show you around~” A girl near Ryo said.

“I'm like, totally free after school today! We can go to this absolutely adorable bread shop near my house!”

“Ryo, Ryo, Ryo! Hey look at me Ryo!”

“Let's go talk to him.” Yugi said, standing up from his seat. He couldn't keep watching those girls bother Ryo all class period.

“Wait, Yug- Aah!” Jonouchi was grabbed by the wrist and yanked along behind Yugi.

Yugi grabbed two chairs from empty desks and butted himself between the girls and Ryo’s desk, placing the chairs down and taking a seat in one of them.

“Hey, watch it Yugi!” One of the girls complained.

“Hi! I'm Yugi Muto and this is my friend Katsuya Jonouchi. You're Ryo Bakura, right?” Yugi introduced himself.

“Ugh, why is Yugi talking to him?”

“The little guy is totally ruining the view!”

“I am so not interested in Yugi or Jonouchi.”

All the girls walked away and went about their own business with each other, leaving the three boys by themselves. Some of girls’ words definitely got under Yugi’s skin, but it was better that they weren't there rather than were. With the girls gone, though, Jonouchi finally took a seat in the other chair Yugi placed down.

Ryo lifted his head from his hands and glanced at Yugi and Jonouchi. He put his hands in his lap but kept his head low.

“Hey, don't worry about those girls. There's this guy here, Ryuji, who has hordes of fangirls and he says the best way to get rid of them when you don't want them around if to hang out with other guys, particularly ones they don't like.” Yugi explained, trying to cheer up Ryo.

“Oh, I getcha Yug. Girls don't like us so if Ryo’s around us, the girls won't be around him!” Jonouchi pointed out, mainly for himself, although he didn't seem to catch that him and Yugi were undesirable according to the girls.

“T-thank you for the consideration.... really, but… I have a big brother that usually keeps them away...Keeps everyone away actually…” Ryo muttered.

He was grateful to Yugi and Jonouchi, that's for sure, but he was weary about making friends with them.

“Hey now. I don't see a big brother around here. That means it has to be up to someone else! So let that be us, okay?” Yugi said, a determined expression on his face.

Ryo looked wide-eyed at the two sitting across from him. They both flashed him a smile and in return Ryo gave a small grin. He felt so overwhelmingly happy to have the day saved by the other two. He was afraid he'd be miserable at this new school, especially since he and his brother didn't share any classes this time around and his other brother didn't go to school anymore. He even refused to let go of his elder brother when they walked into the school in the morning.

“Yugi and Jonouchi, was it?” Ryo asked.

They both nodded.

“It’s lovely to meet you two. And again, thank you for- Eeh!” All three teens flinched when Ryo yelped.

Yugi and Jonouchi were confused until they saw Ryo fumble with his pocket and pull out his phone.

“O-oh, my apologies. My phone buzzed and it startled me.” Ryo explained, making the two chuckle over his reaction to it.

_‘what u doing’_

_‘I think I made two friends :D Please don't ruin it if you meet them.’_

Bakura growled and dropped his phone on his desk. The sound of the phone hitting the desk made Atem look behind him.

“You should put your phone away before he sees it.” Atem whispered.

“Like I give a crap. I can't sleep anymore and my little brother is busy making friends now. ...Hah, friends.” Bakura grumbled.

He rested his head on his desk and fumbled around with his phone. There was a text from his older brother, asking what time he should pick up Bakura and Ryo. He didn't bother with responding to it just yet.

Bakura stared blankly at the wall, bored out of his mind. The voice of the teacher was loud enough that he couldn't sleep, but he couldn't be bothered with listening. With nothing but the wall in his view, he zoned out and was only brought back to reality by a tapping on his desk.

“Uh?” He slowly lifted his head to see Atem facing him with a confused expression.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” The other asked.

“Mm, yeah. This is normal for me though.” Bakura grumbled.

Atem sighed and slipped a piece of notebook paper onto Bakura’s desk who just stared at him in return.

“What the bloody hell is this?” Bakura questioned.

“Notes. You can copy them since I know you didn't do it.” Atem answered.

“ _Notes_!? On the first day!?” Bakura momentarily jumped up from his desk, the wings of his hair shooting upward with him.

“...Yes? I don't know what schools are like in Europe, but in Japan it's likely to happen in about half your classes. Just copy them. I would feel bad if I didn't help you out.” Atem said.

“This doesn't have to do with that bloody destiny thing, does it?” Bakura mumbled as he rummaged in his bag for some paper.

“Heh heh. I don't know, it might.” Atem replied in a joking manner.

Bakura just glared for a second before haphazardly copying down what was written on Atem’s paper, not worrying about what it actually said. Atem watched Bakura scribble down on his paper in what looked to be fairly poor kanji.

“If you don't mind me asking, how come you can speak it perfectly, but your writing is atrocious?” He asked, referring to the Japanese language.

“Bilingual. Grew up with both languages. Never bothered writing in it. Only wrote in English.” Bakura kept his eyes on Atem’s paper, trying not to lose his place as he got to the end of notes.

The second he finished writing the bell rang and Bakura sighed in relief. The two packed up their stuff, grabbed their bags, and left the classroom. After a second, they both realized they were once again headed in the same direction.

“You got lunch?” Atem questioned.

“Yeah.” Bakura replied.

“You going to be alone?”

“Yeah.”

“You can sit with me.”

Bakura glanced down at Atem. “Why are you trying to be friends with me?”

“Is that a bad thing? You're new here and all. I'm pretty sure I'm the first person to talk to you and you're at least willing to hold a conversation. Besides you certainly like playing the lone wolf role and I think you'll be much better off with some friends.” Atem explained.

“Mmm… you don't have to lay it all out like that. A-and I do not do the lone wolf thing on purpose!! I just have a tendency to be like that… _Atem_!” Bakura practically shouted in the hallway, making some students glance over at him.

“Well sorry for stating the cold hard facts…” Atem copied Bakura’s same tone of voice. “Uh… what's your name again?”

“Just call me Bakura!!” 

“ _Bakura_!”

“Hey break up the fight you two.” An unknown teacher said as he walked up to Atem and Bakura.

Bakura glared at the teacher. “We're not fighting!” He angrily yelled.

Atem grabbed Bakura by the shoulder and yanked him down the hall before the teacher could say anything else. He continued pulling the other along until they reached the cafeteria where Bakura finally pushed Atem’s hand off of him. 

“What is wrong with you!?” Atem frantically questioned.

“I don't bloody know!! Lot's of things!” Bakura rummaged his hands through his long white hair.

“Clearly. Now calm down!” Atem ordered.

“Okay! I'm cool, I'm cool, I'm cool!” Bakura sighed and fixed his sleeve where the other had grabbed him.

“Geez, remind me to never rile you up like that again.” Atem snarked.

“Yeah. I had half a mind to stab that old man back there.” Bakura grumbled.

“What would you stab him with?” Atem was curious, sure, but also afraid of what the answer might be.

“That's none of your damn business.” Bakura responded as he walked off towards one of the lunch lines.

_‘I can't believe my first day is absolute crap while Ryo gets to have fun making friends.’_

“Hey! Yugi! Come sit next to me!” A brunette girl shouted and waved at Yugi as he and Ryo entered the classroom.

“Oh, that's my friend Anzu. You should sit with us, I'm sure you and her will get along just fine.” Yugi told Ryo.

Ryo nodded and they both walked over to the far end of the classroom where Anzu was sitting. Ryo took the seat in front of Yugi.

“So no Jonouchi, huh? I heard from Honda that you two had last period together.” Anzu said.

“Yeah, but we have lunch together! We're gonna eat up on the roof like usual. You're joining us, right?” Yugi asked.

“Of course! And so is Honda, so the whole gang's back together again! And he said something about Ryuji coming along too.” She cheered.

Ryo felt odd about sitting in on the two friends’ conversation. He had already warmed up to Yugi and Jonouchi, but now one of them had left and was replaced by an entirely new person. He couldn't help but feel somewhat out of place.

“Oh that's right, Anzu! This is Ryo Bakura.” Yugi pointed to Ryo, making the other flinch. “He’s new this year. He's British.”

Ryo’s face burned up at the mention of himself. “A-a-actually… I'm just half… British, but it's where I grew up.” 

Anzu gasped. “Ohmigosh! That's so cool! It's so nice to meet you Ryo! I'm Anzu Mazaki, I've been friends with Yugi since we were little.”

Ryo nodded and when she outstretched her hand to him, he hesitated for a moment before shaking hands with her. The teacher called everyone's attention forward and began talking. As Ryo listened to her for a few minutes he began hearing giggling behind him. He glanced over his shoulder for a moment to see Yugi pass Anzu a folded paper and when she opened it she tried to stifle a rather loud laugh. She saw Ryo looking and folded the paper back up to covertly hold it out to him. He looked forward but reached his hand back and quickly grabbed the paper, unfolding it on his desk. He was somewhat confused when the paper just consisted of a bunch of drawings of Kuriboh. One with wings, one with a party hat, another with a bowtie and several others. He turned around to look at Yugi and Anzu, who both started giggling again.

“Ryo Bakura.” The teacher called out.

Ryo whipped around in his desk. “Y-yes!?” He quickly realized she was taking attendance and hadn't actually seen any of the note passing.

She glanced up from her clipboard and almost looked surprised when she laid eyes on Ryo. “Do you have a brother?” She questioned.

“Yes ma’am.” Ryo answered.

“Well I hope you don't sleep in my class like him.” She said.

“Sorry, he has a tendency to do that.” Ryo responded, feeling a bit embarrassed.

The teacher continued with attendance and went on about a few things nobody actually bothered to listen to. The note was eventually returned to Yugi who continued to draw on it. Ryo’s phone buzzed in his pocket and he waited until the teacher wasn't looking to pull it out of his pocket.

_‘baku wont answer me :’’’’’((( wat time do i need to pick u 2 up????’_

It was his eldest brother.

_‘2:00’_

Ryo quickly put his phone back in his pocket just as the teacher turned around. 

“I think you all can have the last few minutes to yourselves until it's time for lunch.” She said.

Immediately all the girls in class except Anzu sprang from their seats and ran up to Ryo.

“Woah! What just happened!?” Anzu asked.

“Oh no, this happened last period too.” Yugi grumbled.

Ryo put his hands over his head and shut his eyes. He could never bring himself to tell them to leave him alone. He just had to hope Yugi would do something.

“Do you and your brother look alike!?”

“You should join me for lunch Ryo!”

“No! You should sit with me!”

“Hey!” Anzu called out as she stood up from her desk. “What the heck is wrong with you all!? Can't you see he clearly doesn't want all that attention? He's practically curled up in a ball for pete’s sake!”

The teacher looked up from her papers to see all the girls crowded in one area. “Ladies, please sit down.” She told them.

Some of the girls glared at Anzu before reluctantly returning to their seats. Ryo hesitantly lifted his head up and glanced over to make sure none of the girls might be staring at him.

“Wow, good job Anzu! You took care of that better than I ever could. Last time I just stepped in the middle of ‘em.” Yugi said.

Ryo turned back to the other two and nodded. “Thank you…”

“Okay, does that happen often? Like, I know some girls can be a little crazy but… that was a bit much.” Anzu questioned as she sat back down.

“Mm-hm. Practically all the time. I… I can barely do a thing about it.” Ryo responded.

“Say Anzu, how come you're not all over Ryo?” Yugi inquired.

Anzu stared at him with an annoyed expression for a second before suddenly looking away and blushing. “B-because _I_ have a one track mind when it comes to romance. I don't fall for just any cute guy. I pick the best one and stay true to him.”

Ryo and Yugi glanced at each other with confused expressions.

“I-I mean,” Anzu continued. “it's not like you're not cute, Ryo. I just have my eyes on someone else.”

Neither of the boys needed any further explanation but Anzu insisted on explaining it in more detail.

“-and you're not even short enough for my tastes so there!” She finished.

“Uhh… To be honest with you, I don't think I've ever been told I wasn't ‘short enough’.” Ryo said.

The bell suddenly rang and everyone sprang up from their seats to leave. As Yugi, Ryo, and Anzu walked out of the classroom Yugi stopped and turned around.

“Hey Ryo, you got anyone to have lunch with? Like your brother or something?” Yugi wondered.

“Oh, um… no.” Ryo thought for a second, recalling a conversation him and Bakura had that morning. “He has the first lunch so we're both alone, unless he found a new friend that is.”

“My big brother has first lunch too! How funny would it be if they ended up sitting with each other? Haha. Anyway, you should come up to the roof where we eat lunch. Jonouchi’ll be there too, along with our friend Honda and apparently Ryuji.” Yugi explained.

Ryo thought it might have been too unlikely for both their elder brothers to have met, let alone willing to have lunch together considering how Bakura likes to be a lone wolf. Nonetheless he enjoyed the idea of eating on the roof.

“Okay, sounds like a fine idea.” Ryo said as he followed Yugi and Anzu.

_‘I wonder how your lunch time was Big Brother. You weren't alone again… were you?’_

Bakura felt something hit his head and he opened his eyes.

“Why are you sleeping at lunch?” Atem asked.

“‘Cause I sleep a lot. Did you throw something at me?” Bakura replied.

Atem put his bread back on his tray. “...No.”

Deciding not to bother with it, Bakura closed his eyes again. He was trying to drown out the sound of over one hundred other students talking at once, but no matter how hard he tried to ignore it he couldn't.

“I still can't believe you ate that fast.” Atem noted.

“Yeah, I have a tendency to do that.” Bakura mumbled.

The two were silent for a few minutes, Atem continued to eat while Bakura tried to sleep.

“So,” Atem started as he swallowed his food. “were you like this at your old school?”

Bakura opened one eye. “Like what?”

“Like… well, you sleep in class all period but you say you sleep just fine. You eat a whole meal in about two minutes. And you said you would have stabbed that teacher that stopped us in the hall. Are you… a delinquent?” Atem was hesitant to say the word incase it made Bakura mad.

Bakura paused and processed everything Atem said. He started tapping a finger on the lunch table.

“Technically? The eating thing has nothing to do with that though, my whole family’s like that. You haven't seen me skip yet though. Trust me, in a few weeks you'll be seeing a lot less of me.” Bakura explained.

“Don’t skip.” Was the only thing Atem thought he could reply with. He was sure it wouldn't change anything though.

“You sound like my little brother.” Bakura stated and finally stopped tapping his finger.

The two went silent again. The silence between them seemed louder than the voices of all the other teens at lunch. For a moment Bakura was so quiet and still, Atem assumed he was successful in falling asleep. The white-haired teen looked surprisingly peaceful when he wasn't awake. That peacefulness was ruined, however, when a hand violently slammed down next to Bakura and Atem. Bakura’s head shot up along with the wings of his hair and he loosely gripped at his chest in shock.

“ _Atem_!” Another student shouted at the partial blond.

Bakura stared at the stranger. He had short brown hair and blue eyes. His uniform was much more tidy and clean looking than the other two who wore their uniform jackets open. It suddenly dawned on him that this guy was _tall_. And not just by his and Atem’s height standards either, but legitimately tall. Bakura scowled at him as he stared right at Atem, completely ignoring Bakura.

Atem wasn't phased in the slightest, in fact, he simply sighed. “Kaiba please. It's a new school year. Can't we put the past behind us? It's not worth doing this all over again.”

“No Atem!” Kaiba yelled. “You can't just ‘put this behind us’! We have a score to settle and now you can't hide from me like you did all summer!”

Bakura looked at Atem, who had a completely uninterested expression, then to Kaiba. Kaiba turned his attention to Bakura.

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Bakura questioned.

“You don't know? You must be new then. Let me enlighten you a little, newbie. I am Seto Kaiba, senior student, top of my class, and president of Kaiba Corp. I'm so rich neither of your parents could imagine earning the amount of money I make in a day, in their entire lives. My company develops the top of the line gaming technology. Ever heard of Duel Disks? I'm the guy that invented them.” When Kaiba was done ranting Bakura stared at him with the same uncaring expression as Atem.

After a moment Bakura smirked at Kaiba.

“Yeah, no. See, I don't give a fuck _who_ you are, I was simply looking for the name-” Bakura stood up and pulled a switchblade from his front pocket. “-of the next person I'm going to stab.”

Atem immediately jumped up and reached across the table to grab Bakura’s wrist. “Put that away before someone else sees it and gets you expelled!” 

Kaiba remained unfettered. “It seems you've gotten a lapdog since the last time I saw you, Atem.” And with that Kaiba walked away and out of the cafeteria.

“Let go of me!” Bakura shouted. “That bloody wanker called me your lapdog! I don't put up with that kind of crap!”

Atem’s grip on Bakura’s wrist only tightened. “Put the knife away.”

Atem was really putting all his strength into his grip. It reminded Bakura of a leash. He sighed and flipped the blade closed. Atem released him and Bakura put the blade back in his pocket. The two then sat back down. Atem was thankful no one really saw the exchange between Bakura and Kaiba.

“Well… at least now I know what you meant when you said you wanted to stab that teacher.” Atem said in a somewhat deadpan voice.

Bakura fidgeted around with his feet and seemed antsy to a degree. He glanced around the cafeteria but couldn't find anything he actually wanted to look at.

“I don't seem like a lapdog to you… do I?” Bakura mumbled.

“Well I only just met you today, and even though I've gotten quite a clear picture of your personality I still don't know you that well. I don't think I have the authority to answer that.” Atem said.

His response only seemed to piss Bakura off. “Okay but, he… he called me a lapdog-”

“Kaiba messes with everyone like that.” Atem interrupted. “It's not the first time I've heard him call someone a dog either. He doesn't even know your name let alone anything about you. And unless you continue to get under his skin, he's not going to care what your name is.”

Bakura glared at the empty tray still sitting in front of him. Atem may have been right, but that wouldn't stop him from considering Kaiba an enemy next time they crossed paths.

“Sorry for getting you wrapped up in my business.” Atem said.

“No big deal. What's his beef with you anyway?” Bakura wondered.

Atem sighed. “I beat him once at Duel Monsters and he's hated me, and by extension my little brother, ever since. He's always challenging me to a rematch at the worst times. It's like he stalks me. I actually was avoiding him all summer but he wouldn't stop hunting me down so it's not like I had any other option. He’s even harassed my grandpa. Trust me, _don't_ get on Kaiba’s bad side. ...A-any more than you already have!”

“That's… bloody pathetic.” Bakura stated and Atem nodded in response.

“...How much you wanna bet we don't have next class period together?” Bakura blurted out.

Atem paused to process what Bakura said then looked around before picking up the apple on his tray. “Apple says we do.”

“Destiny again?”

“Destiny!”

_‘Ryo, I might've been wrong. You're not the only one making friends.’_

“I just realized... I'm going to have to walk all the way back down those stairs when the bell rings!” Ryo whined.

“And you had such a hard time getting up them in the first place.” Anzu said with a pity grin on her face.

“You need more strength pal. Have the last of my leftovers, there's chicken in it.” Honda held his container up to Ryo who flinched in return.

“U-uh… T-Thanks, really… but… I'll manage.” Ryo would've accepted it if it didn't look so… gross.

“If he's not gettin’ it then why not pass those leftovers my way, Honda?” Jonouchi asked.

“Mmm… Nope.” Honda replied.

“C'mon dude! Ya just offered it to Ryo!” Jonouchi reached over to grab the container.

Honda held the food off to the side while pushing Jonouchi away by his face. The two fought each other off until Jonouchi pushed Honda down and onto Ryuji.

“Hey! Stop it guys, you're bumping into me!” Ryuji complained and pushed Honda off of himself.

“Ahh!” Honda yelped as he fell onto the ground and lost his grip on the container, dropping it onto Ryuji.

“Seriously?!” Ryuji tried to shake off some of the food. “It's in my hair!”

“Whoops.” Honda and Jonouchi said in unison.

Anzu and Yugi both laughed at the event while Ryo helped Honda up. Suddenly the bell rang and everyone scrambled to grab their stuff, leaving Ryuji to take care of the mess himself. Yugi opened the door to the staircase and was first down them until he stopped halfway to the bottom.

“Something wrong Yugi?” Anzu asked.

“What are you doing here Mokuba?” Yugi questioned, sounding very confused.

A very short kid with long black hair took a step forward. “I go here now Yugi. I'm a ninth grader.”

“Holy crap!” Jonouichi shouted. “I thought you were like eight or something!”

“I am not eight!” Mokuba shouted back.

“Um, my apologies but I'm new here. Who are you?” Ryo asked.

“Mokuba Kaiba and my big brother is Seto Kaiba! Who are you?” Mokuba responded.

“Ryo Bakura and I have two big brothers. Nice to meet you Mokuba.” Ryo gave a small hand wave to Mokuba.

“Nice to meet you too.” Mokuba grumbled.

“Wait a minute… Kaiba has a little brother?” Honda wondered.

“Which one’s Kaiba again?” Ryuji asked while trying to get food out of his hair.

“Everyone shut up!” Mokuba yelled. “My big brother texted me saying Atem Muto has a lapdog and I wanna know who it is Yugi!”

“Lapdog? Like a Yorkie?” Anzu inquired.

“We don't have a dog Anzu. At least, not one that I know about.” Yugi said.

“Not that kind of lapdog! Someone that does whatever he says and listens to his orders! He was with Atem at first lunch!” Mokuba continued shouting.

“Ooookay… Well, Mokuba. I haven't spoken to or even seen Atem since we first got here this morning. If he's made a friend since then I wouldn't know about it. And clearly none of us have met this guy. They were at first lunch anyway, only eleventh and twelfth graders have that lunch. We're all tenth graders.” Yugi explained.

“Except for you, you're a ninth grader.” Jonouichi piped in.

“I said shut up!! Now tell me who the lapdog is!!” Mokuba demanded.

“Did you even get a description of the guy? How are we supposed to know who he is if we don't know what he looks like.” Anzu stated, obviously starting to get annoyed.

“Mmm… Seto didn't tell me! All he said was that the guy pulled a knife on him so he's got a weapon at school and that's an expulsional offense!” Mokuba said.

Ryo flinched and his eyes widened. Someone with a knife that's either an eleventh or twelfth grader. Just what kind of trouble did his big brother get himself into on the first day of school? 

“I don't think expulsional is a word, kiddo.” Ryuji said.

“I said _shut up_!!!” Mokuba practically screamed. “If you won't tell me then Seto’s gonna find out for himself and make both the lapdog and Atem pay! All your big brother does anyway is run and hide! _My_ big brother would never be such a _coward_!!” Mokuba then ran off down the staircase.

“Yeeeah… I have a feeling that kid's actually eight.” Jonouichi mumbled.

“Mokuba’s not all bad. He was nice to me in middle school. Then Kaiba lost that duel to Atem and he's been on Kaiba’s side of the issue ever since… But really, it's the first day of school. Do they have to start something like this right off the bat?” Yugi said, walking down the stairs.

Anzu looked back to Ryo, who was more quiet than usual. “Sorry about all that Ryo. This kind of stuff happens all the time around Yugi and his brother Atem. I bet you and your brother- oh, brothers get into a lot of weird situations, huh?”

Ryo simply nodded, too focused on his thoughts to actually say anything. What in the world happened at first lunch? Should he text Bakura? Or what if that made things worse?

_‘Big Brother, we agreed to look at this as a fresh start. One where we could leave all the old stuff behind. You promised me you'd do better. You promised us.’_

Bakura twirled the apple core around on his desk. He'd had it with him for the past two classes since lunch but he couldn't bring himself to throw it away just yet. He was alone since lunch and hadn't made a new friend since Atem. All he wanted to do was sleep. Or go home. Both really. It just felt too quiet now, even with a constant stream of sound from other people, without anyone to talk to everything just felt empty. Just like it always used to.

Bakura closed his eyes and in what felt like a few seconds he heard the bell ring. He quickly stood up but stumbled as he reached for his bag. He rubbed his eyes and grabbed the apple core when he walked away, finally throwing it into the trash can near the door. 

“Hey, come here.” The teacher said before Bakura stepped out the door.

Bakura sighed and turned around, walking up to the teacher’s desk. “Yeah?”

“My class isn't for naptime, you hear me.” He said.

Bakura stared at him with a blank expression for a second. “I hear you.”

“Then don't sleep in my class.”

“No promises.” Bakura quickly turned and escaped from the classroom before he could be stopped.

He was glad to finally get to the last class of the day and would get to go home soon. As he walked into the last class he spotted Atem already settled in a desk. The other smiled and waved as he saw Bakura. The frown on Bakura’s face contradicted his real emotions. He scurried to the seat behind Atem and plopped down.

“I knew destiny wouldn't fail me for long.” Atem said with a smirk.

“Sure and destiny’s telling me I'm going to stay awake for this class. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a nap to get back to.” Bakura replied, placing his head on the desk.

“Please don't tell me you slept for the past two classes…” Atem mumbled.

“No. After lunch I had gym so… kinda can't sleep in that situation. Granted, we didn't do anything but… Man was that guy loud.” Bakura yawned and closed his eyes.

Atem thought for a moment. “Oh, did you have Mr. Karita?”

Bakura quickly lifted his head a bit. “Yeah! That guy!” He put his head back down. “Sure hope Ryo doesn't have that guy for his gym class, that's no way he'd be able to handle it.”

“Is that your little brother?” Atem asked.

“Mm-hm.” Bakura grunted in confirmation.

“He’s not anything like you, I hope.” Atem stated.

“Actually he's not. He's a ‘goody two-shoes’.” Bakura said in a sarcastic tone. “My older brother and I are alike though.”

Atem froze. “Oh no. There's another one?”

“Oh ha ha. Yes, there's three of us. How funny.” Bakura sat up, deciding a nap wasn't possible at the moment.

Atem scoffed. “Your parents must have their hands full.”

Bakura was silent for a moment. “It depends on the circumstances.”

The bell rang and Atem turned around to listen to the teacher as class began. Talking about family reminded Bakura of the text his elder brother sent earlier. He pulled out his phone, made sure the teacher couldn't see it, and noticed he had another text.

_‘nvm ryo told me. u better not be sleeping or ill tell mom’_

Bakura scowled. Not only did Ryo beat him to it, but the jerk was trying to pick on him too! 

_‘shut up. i’ll sleep if i want.’_

Surprisingly he got a text back right away. It was unusual for the other to respond so soon.

_‘only loooosers sleep in class’_

_‘only losers drop out!!!!’_

Bakura put his phone back in his pocket with his switchblade, not wanting to get any more aggravated than he'd already gotten.

“Bakura!”

Bakura shot his head up, hair wings going up too. “Huh!?”

“I'll take that as a ‘here’.” The teacher said and continued with attendance.

He heard Atem snicker and Bakura kicked the back of his chair. Atem glanced over his shoulder and frowned at Bakura. 

For once Bakura didn't sleep in class when he had the chance. Instead he shook his leg and stared at anything that caught his eye for more than a second. He ended up staring at the back of Atem’s hair for quite some time, he even thought about touching it, but decided getting aggressively glared might not be worth it. Actually, he didn't even know how Atem would react. Maybe the other wouldn't mind. Bakura hesitated before slowly reaching a hand out towards the black and red hair. He was barely millimeters away from contact when Atem leaned forward and propped his head up with his hand. Bakura froze and pulled his hand away. He heard a giggle next to him and saw a purple haired girl looking at him. He glared at her but she simply waved at him and focused her attention back on the teacher.

Finally the rest of class had passed by and everyone was sitting there waiting for the last bell to ring.

“Say, how do you get home?” Atem asked.

“My brother picks us up.” Bakura looked up from his phone. “Why, you need a ride?”

“Oh no, I don't live far. I just walk. Thanks though.” Atem replied.

“Good. He hates being everyone's chauffeur.” Bakura said.

It was silent for another moment as Bakura stared at the clock on his phone.

“So what’d he talk about?” He questioned.

“Mm? Oh! Just what we'll be learning all year. Same as most teachers.” Atem answered.

Bakura glanced over for a second to see the same purple haired girl staring at him out of the corner of her eye. He started getting tired of it.

“Hey, you wanna mind your own business.” Bakura told her.

The girl flinched and flailed his hands in a defensive manner. “I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for it to look like I was eavesdropping! I promise!”

Atem looked over at the girl. “Miho?”

“Don't tell me you know that chick.” Bakura complained.

“Sort of? She's Miho Nosaka, a friend of a friend.” Atem explained.

“Hi Atem! Sorry again for giving a bad first impression. Nice to meet you!” Miho held out a hand across the aisle.

Bakura stared at her hand and back up best he could in his chair.

“What's wrong? Don't like girls?” Miho said jokingly with a giggle.

“Actually yes. I have quite the aversion to women.” Bakura stated.

“O-oh, I'm sorry.” Miho pulled her hand back with a nervous smile on her face.

“You are one strange person.” Atem mumbled.

“To me you're the strange one.” Bakura said as the bell rang.

Most of the class scrambled to get out of school and the two boys made their way through the halls together. They made it to the front doors when they were stopped.

“Big Brother!” Shouted two voices at once.

Both Bakura and Atem turned to see Ryo and Yugi waving at them as they ran down the hall with big grins on their faces. Ryo ran straight to Bakura and wrapped his arms around his elder brother's neck. Bakura in turn pulled Ryo closer with a tight hug. Atem held his hand up high and as Yugi approached he jumped up and tried to high-five Atem but only got high enough to hit his brothers wrist.

“Getting closer, Yugi.” Atem said.

“Bloody hell, you two look alike!” Bakura said in shock as he let go of Ryo and saw Yugi. The only difference between him and Atem was that Yugi was even shorter than the already short Atem and Yugi had purple eyes with the tips of his hair purple as well.

“I could say the same to you.” Atem replied when he laid eyes on Ryo.

“You okay, Ryo? Nothing bad happen right? No one pick on you?” Bakura questioned as he grabbed Ryo by the face and tried to check his little brother for any possible injuries.

Ryo removed Bakura’s hands from his face and shook his head. “Everything's a-okay! I even made friends with Yugi and had lunch with him and all his other friends on the roof!”

Bakura stared at Yugi and the small boy felt as if he was being inspected, like Bakura was judging if Yugi was worthy of being Ryo’s friend or not. Yugi made the first move and took a step forward.

“Heya! I'm Atem’s little brother, Yugi Muto!” Yugi flashed him a smile.

“Hey.” Was all Bakura said.

Ryo recognized the look on Bakura’s face. “Oh sorry about him, Yugi. He can be pretty over protective.”

“Well isn't this nice? Our little brothers became friends just like us.” Atem stated.

“It's only a friendship if it lasts longer than a day.” Bakura quipped.

“I have a feeling destiny wants it to last.” Atem joked.

“Oh no, he hasn't been talking to you about destiny all day has he?” Yugi asked.

“As a matter of fact he has.” Bakura said in an annoyed tone.

The four teens made their way outside the building and past the courtyard. Atem and Yugi said their goodbyes and walked home. Bakura and Ryo took a seat on the stones holding up the school fence, waiting for their eldest brother to arrive.

Bakura took another glance at his phone. “He said you already told him. You said two right?”

“Of course I did. You know him though, he probably left at two. And! He might still have trouble finding his way around town. Remember how Father was late to work the whole first week we moved here because he kept getting lost?” Ryo explained.

Bakura groaned. “I just wanna get home and go back to bed!”

“Father’s not going to let you sleep in anymore now that school has started.” Ryo said.

“Watch me give a bloody crap.” Bakura grumbled.

It was quiet for a moment as the two watched car after car go by, waiting to see the one that would pick them up. Ryo wanted to speak up, but didn't know how.

“...Big Brother…” Ryo started then fell silent.

“What?” Bakura asked, sounding annoyed.

“...What… what did you do… during lunch?” Ryo questioned.

Bakura looked at him with a confused expression then recalled the events Ryo was referring to.

“Why do you care? Unless you heard the wrong version of events it doesn't concern you.” Bakura stated.

Ryo turned to Bakura. “It does concern me. The guy, the one you almost attacked, has a little brother who showed up and threatened Yugi, his brother, and you! He wants to know who you are.”

Bakura scoffed. “He’s just some rich brat who thinks he's better than everyone else.”

“It's not the same here like it is back home, Big Brother. Everyone knew you and knew that was simply normal for you. Nobody knows you here. If you mess with people the school won't go easy on you. You could get expelled.” Ryo warned.

Bakura scowled and opened his mouth, but a honking horn interrupted him. A red car with the top down drove up and stopped in front of them.

“Get in losers, we're goin’ home!” 

“Finally! Where the bloody hell have you been, Akefia?” Bakura asked as he tossed his bag in the back and hopped in the passenger’s seat.

“Relax Baku, I got lost. It’s the first time I've driven here.” Akefia replied, ruffling Bakura’s hair before the younger swatted his hand away.

Ryo sat down in the back and put his seatbelt on. “Seatbelts guys.”

“Shut up, Ryo.” Both Bakura and Akefia said.

As Akefia started to drive off Bakura saw a small kid leaning against the entryway of the fence. The kid’s head was down so Bakura couldn't see his face but he had long black hair.

“Sooo, how was the first day of school?” Akefia asked.

“You sound like Mother.” Bakura mocked.

“Answer the damn question. I'm trying to be nice.” Akefia grumbled.

“I made a whole lot of friends!” Ryo said.

“Well that's something I didn't expect to hear. But congrats!” Akefia smiled at Ryo through the rearview mirror. “And Baku?”

“Slept.” Bakura mumbled.

“Oh c’mon, that can't be the only thing you did.”

“Maybe if you were there you would know.”

“You can complain about it all you want but it's not gonna make me go back to school. Ryo, what’d Baku do today?”

“He made a friend.” Ryo answered.

“Little snitch.” Bakura mumbled under his breath, but he was nonetheless glad Ryo didn't mention anything he knew about the ‘lunch incident’.

The car suddenly stopped causing Bakura to jerk forward, almost planting his face on the windshield. Ryo choked on his seatbelt, but stayed relatively in place.

“Bloody hell Kef! What are you doing!?” Bakura shouted.

“You made a friend!?” Akefia repeated, turning to the younger with a shocked expression.

“ _That's_ what you stop the damn car in the middle of the road for!? What's wrong with you!? Drive, now! Before we get rear ended!” Bakura yelled at him.

“Chill, we're fine.” Akefia started driving again. “So this, uh, friend…”

“I'm not talking about him.” Bakura interrupted.

“Ryo.” Akefia said.

“I'm friends with his little brother and Yugi, the one I'm friends with, told me they're both a quarter Egyptian and they can speak it fluently too!” Ryo answered.

“Okay, that's awesome! You're gonna have to invite them over some time. Books aren't as helpful as actual people.” Akefia replied.

“I am not inviting someone over just so they can be your own personal Rosetta Stone.” Bakura complained.

“Awww…” Akefia whined, not feeling like putting up much of a fight over it.

The rest of the ride home was relatively normal. Akefia parked in his usual place and the three walked into the apartment building. They took the elevator which, like always, contained an old lady who always seemed concerned about standing next to Akefia. The brothers got off on the fourth floor and since Ryo got to the door first he searched in his bag for his key but couldn't seem to find it so Akefia used his key instead.

“I have brought home the small ones!” Akefia announced as he opened the door and walked in, Bakura and Ryo following behind him.

“Don't call us that.” Bakura grumbled and shut the door.

“Oh good, welcome home boys.” Their father said, looking up from the messy stack of papers in his lap.

“When'd you get home?” Akefia questioned as he sat down on the couch next to his stepfather.

“Couple of minutes after you left apparently.” He answered, going back to sifting through the papers.

“Sooo, how was the first day of school?” A voice asked from the kitchen.

“Really good! Big Brother and I made friends!” Ryo exclaimed.

There was an audible overdramatic gasp then a woman with long white hair with a purple tint in a ponytail and pink eyes emerged from the kitchen.

“My boys made friends!?” She said, sounding very excited.

“Don't make a scene about it, geez.” Bakura mumbled.

“Now the only one who needs friends is you, Akefia.” Their father joked. “You know, the museum is getting an import of Egyptian artifacts along with a curator from Egypt moving in next month. You could make friends with her. I believe she's about your age.”

“Oooh!! Well ain't that cool!” Akefia got quite excited about the news and rather interested in hearing about this curator woman.

Bakura’s curiosity was piqued as well. He might not have cared for museums much considering how many times in his life he was forced to be in one, but it might be interesting news to Atem and Yugi.

He put a hand over his mouth as he yawned and headed for the hallway. “I'm gonna go to bed.”

“It's not even three.” His father stated, glancing at his watch.

“I know what I said. Bakura retorted.

“Want me to save some dinner for you in the morning?” His mother asked.

“Sure.” And with that Bakura left to his and Ryo’s bedroom.

“Is he gonna sleep in his uniform?” Akefia questioned.

“Most likely.” Ryo replied.

Bakura pushed aside a box filled with clothes that was in front of his bed and dropped himself onto the mattress. He kicked his shoes off and threw the blanket over his head. He felt uncomfortable somehow and realized he was lying on his switchblade. He pulled it and his phone out of his pocket, plugging his phone in and attempting to get comfortable again. Bakura stared at the wall as he tried to fall asleep, but something kept nagging at him, making it impossible to sleep.

_“Well… it seems our destinies are intertwined.”_

_“This doesn't have to do with that bloody destiny thing, does it?”_

_“Heh heh. I don't know, it might.”_

_“Destiny again?”_

_“Destiny!”_

_“I knew destiny wouldn't fail me for long.”_

_“I have a feeling destiny wants it to last.”_

Bakura groaned and turned around so he was facing the door.

_“You know, the museum is getting an import of Egyptian artifacts along with a curator from Egypt moving in next month.”_

“I must be paranoid or something.” Bakura whispered as he closed his eyes and finally fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I didn't intend for the first chapter alone to be almost 9,000 words, and yet here it is. Almost 9,000 words and not a Marik in sight... Don't worry though, I don't plan on letting this first little arc go past three chapters. Two if it turns out to be a lot less to write than I think it'll be. Right now this is kinda like all exposition. Making things happen now, but still setting it up for the future.
> 
> One tid bit of info tho. I found out Jonouichi calling Yugi 'Yug' was only a dub thing, but I like it so I kept it. And while not much characterization has actually been shown for many of the characters, I just wanna say it seems like the majority if the cast is leaning somewhat towards their manga counterpart personalities since I've been reading that lately and it's the most prominent Yu-Gi-Oh! thing in my head.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you like it so far, even though there's no romance yet(depending on how hard you squint at certain lines).
> 
> P.S. Sorry not sorry about the Mean Girls reference!


	2. Destiny's Bag of Mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna skip the part where I talk about how much I hate myself and just say that all instances of Jonouichi in the first chapter have been fixed and changed to Jonouchi. Nothing else was changed so don't think you need to go back and re-read it.

The cafeteria was the same as yesterday. Bakura and Atem sat on the end of a lone table that no one else bothered to sit at. Bakura already finished his lunch and rested his head on the table as Atem still ate. A slow light clanking could be heard every few seconds. It was starting to get less than tolerable for Atem.

"Can you get the fork out of your mouth? It keeps hitting the table." He asked.

Bakura took the fork from his mouth and put it in the lunchbox. "I was getting bored of it anyway."

It finally dawned on Atem that Bakura had a lunch from home unlike the previous day. He glanced at the lunchbox, which looked odd, at least since it was being toted around by Bakura of all people. It seemed like something a child would own in grade school considering it was bright orange and had some kind of cartoon character on it. He noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the lunchbox and quickly glanced to Bakura, who had his eyes closed. Atem slipped the paper from the lunchbox and turned it over. Unfortunately it was in English and Atem couldn't understand it, but it looked somewhat like a note a mother would put in her child's lunch.

"Hey!" Bakura shouted as he snatched the paper out of Atem's hand.

"Aww, embarrassed?" Atem mocked.

"No! It's just none of your business!" Bakura claimed.

He slammed the note on the table and glanced down at it.

_'Have a good day at school Sweetie! Mommy loves you~'_

Bakura groaned and crumpled up the note into a small ball. He threw it, aiming for a nearby trashcan, but hit a girl in the back of the head instead.

"Oh shit!" Bakura went wide-eyed and shoved a hand over his mouth.

"You did not just do that." Atem said in disbelief.

As the girl turned around with a confused look on her face, the two boys discovered it was Miho Nosaka from their last class of the day. Apparently not realizing that she was hit in the head with a paper ball, she instead flashed a bright smile when she laid eyes on Atem and Bakura. Miho happily ran up to them and placed her lunch tray on their table. Bakura visibly flinched and tried to scoot away from her.

"Hey boys!" Miho greeted with a wave. "Mind if I sit with you? Like, all my friends are a grade below me and I was all alone in here yesterday."

While Atem didn't mind Miho's company, he looked to Bakura who was clearly uncomfortable with her presence.

"Um, I don't think that would be a good idea Miho." Atem reluctantly said.

"Oh nonsense! I'll just sit next to you so I don't freak him out!" Miho gleefully plopped down next to Atem and began eating.

Several awkward minutes went by with Bakura and Atem in complete silence as Miho chatted on and on about random things. From her summer vacation to dinner with her family yesterday and her shopping trip with her friend Anzu last week. When Miho wasn't looking Bakura pulled his switchblade out of his pocket, but Atem managed to glare at him hard enough to make him reluctantly put it away.

Bakura resorted to trying to ignore the chatty girl and stared off to the side. He watched several people walk in and out the cafeteria. He didn't pay any of them much attention, but he spotted someone behind all the others that caught his eye. Upon closer inspection, they appeared to be leaning against the wall and staring… at him. It finally dawned on Bakura that he recognized this person.

He tapped across the table to get Atem's attention. "Isn't that the douchebag from yesterday?" He covertly pointed to the person.

Atem curiously looked from Bakura to the person he was pointing at. "Is that…?" He squinted as he tried to get a closer look. "Oh no, that's Kaiba."

"-and I was like 'That dress is sooo cute-' Omigosh Kaiba!? Where!?" Miho shouted, frantically looking around.

When Miho finally saw Kaiba too she practically jumped out of her seat and made heart eyes at him. "Omigosh that's really Seto Kaiba! He's soooooo hot! Why is he looking over here!? Does he see me!? Do you think he's interested!? Am I pretty enough!?"

"...This is one reason why I don't like women." Bakura grumbled with a scowl on his face.

"Understandable." Atem muttered.

"Seriously!" Miho slammed her hands down on the table in determination making the boys flinch. "Tell me if I look pretty enough! I have to match Kaiba's level of hotness to even have a chance with him!"

"If I have to hear that fag referred to as hot one more time-"

"Woah!" Atem interrupted Bakura. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

Bakura looked at him somewhat confused. He noticed a shocked expression on Miho's face as well. "Fag? Yeah. Watch me say it to his face."

Bakura turned in the direction of Kaiba, cupped his hands around his mouth and began shouting. "Hey Kaiba! You're a fa-agh!"

Atem practically threw himself across the table and tried to shove his own hands over Bakura's mouth. "Stop it! You can't say that!"

Bakura pushed his hands away. "Yes I can!"

"No you can't!"

"Yes I can!"

"No! You! Can't!"

"Trust me! Yes! I! Can!"

Miho's eyes widened once it finally hit her that Bakura must be right.

"No! You can't say it!" Atem continued to protest despite beginning to believe he might be wrong.

"Can't say what?"

"That… that word!"

"What word?"

"You know what word!"

"No. I don't. Please, enlighten me."

"..."

"Atem, how am I supposed to understand what word we're referring to if you won't even tell me?"

Atem sighed.

"...F-fag..."

Bakura got a sly grin on his face and both Atem and Miho were visibly unnerved by it. "You're allowed to say it too, aren't you?"

The two flinched and Atem moved back into his seat, looking away from Bakura and Miho. Miho gasped and her face turned red.

"Omigosh!" She exclaimed. "So you two are- Omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh!"

"Miho! Don't say anything to anyone!" Atem shouted.

"H-hahahahaha!" Bakura started laughing, genuinely laughing and it was making the situation worse for Atem.

"Omigosh omigosh omigosh!" Miho covered her mouth with her hands.

_"Oh Atem, I don't think I've ever felt this way about another guy."_

_"It's okay. You can express your true feelings to me because… I too feel the same."_

_"It makes me so happy to hear you say that. I promise I'll never let you go."_

_"It's always been my dream to be with you, ever since I first saw you. I swear to never let go of you either."_

"Omigosh I'm sorry! I have to go!" Miho sprinted past the two boys and out of the cafeteria as quickly as she could.

"She better not get the wrong idea." Bakura stated as he reached for Miho's forgotten lunch tray.

Atem sighed and looked up. He spotted Kaiba leave his place against the wall and begin to exit the cafeteria. "Hey, Kaiba's leaving."

"Oh good." Bakura said as he took a bite of Miho's abandoned bread. "I was starting to think that was a statue. He hadn't moved, even when I was yelling at him."

"I'm just astounded that nobody ever seems to hear anything yelled in this cafeteria." Atem mumbled, dropping his head on the table.

"Ah, don't you worry. If anyone finds out I'll just stab them. I've gotten real good at fighting off bullies for Ryo anyway. And if that doesn't work I can get our older brother to beat them up." Bakura said.

"That doesn't help, Bakura!" Atem shouted, although his voice was muffled by the table.

Around the corner, Miho backed up to the wall to catch her breath. Her face was still red, albeit a few shades lighter. She stared at the ground as she regained her composure, but saw two feet step in front of her and it felt like a shadow was looming over her. She slowly looked up to see Seto Kaiba staring down at her with a stern expression. Miho's face completely lit up again.

_'Omigosh! Seto Kaiba is right in front of me! Think Miho! What do I say to sound likeable to him!?'_

"Miho Nosaka?" Kaiba asked.

_'Omigosh he knows my name!'_

"Um… y-yes." She replied.

"Tell me everything you know about that white-haired lapdog." He demanded.

"White-haired…? Oh! The British guy with Atem. U-um… I-I don't recall his name but he's got this thing about being close to girls. And I remember yesterday he talked about an older and younger brother." Miho said.

"Mmm. So Mokuba was right." Kaiba muttered to himself. "Is there anything else?"

Glad to be of use to Kaiba, Miho continued on. "He apparently eats and sleeps a lot and I saw him try to touch Atem's hair in class yesterday! And they sat together in class and even left together! And…"

"And what, Miho?" Kaiba pressed.

Miho hesitated. Atem said not to tell anyone, but she wasn't being asked about him in the first place. This was about the British guy. Kaiba was just curious… right?

"And I just found out him and Atem are… are…" Miho paused to cup her hands around her mouth and stood on her tiptoes.

Getting the hint, Kaiba leaned down and Miho whispered the rest of her sentence in his ear. Kaiba's eyes widened and he smirked, satisfied with Miho's information.

"You've been a big help, Miho. Thank you." Kaiba said, making Miho blush and giggle.

"N-no problem. Anything to help you out!" Miho exclaimed.

The bell rang and Kaiba walked away without another word. When he was far enough away from the cafeteria he pulled out his phone and texted Mokuba.

_'Make sure you confront Yugi again. I got a good bit of new info but I think questioning that brother of his would also be a good idea.'_

_'okie dokie! already ahead of you bro!'_

Mokuba opened the door to the roof and put his phone back in his pocket.

"Hah! I got here before Yugi and his friends! Ah, it's nice being allowed to leave class whenever I want! ...It'd be great if I could have lunch with my friends instead of doing this though…" Mokuba stood still on the roof for a few seconds.

"...They better show up quick. If I could make it up those stairs in less than a minute with my little legs, then Yugi can get up here faster. So don't keep me waiting!" Mokuba shouted at the roof door, but quickly felt stupid. He sat down on the ground and waited.

A few silent minutes later and the roof door swung open.

"-then his level eighty Yamask beat my level one hundred Alakazam! He won! Can you believe that!?" Yugi complained.

"Well, there is a type advantage there." Ryo commented.

"Woah, um… Yugi. It's Mokuba again." Anzu said, tapping Yugi on the shoulder.

"Oh, hey Mokuba!" Yugi greeted him with a wave.

"Hi Yugi… Wait, no friendly greetings! Our big brother's are enemies so we are too! And that includes you too now!" Mokuba shouted, pointing at Ryo.

"Me? But what did I- Oh… Oh bugger, that's right." Ryo whispered to himself.

"So did you do what I told you to do, Yugi?" Mokuba asked.

"Oh! Yeah, uh… I totally forgot all about that once you left." Yugi said with a nervous laugh.

Mokuba sighed and shook his head. "Of course you did. Alright, looks like I'll have to rely on you, Ryo Bakura. Hmm, what to ask… Ah, tell me what your brother's name is."

"Big Brother? He just goes by Bakura. He doesn't like his first name." Ryo replied.

"Whether he likes it or not isn't the point here. Just tell me his name." Mokuba ordered.

"Mmm… Sorry, but last time I said his name, to him, he tried to put me in the refrigerator. I can only imagine what he'll do if he found out I actually told someone else his name." Ryo explained.

Mokuba stared at Ryo with a rather disconcerting expression. As mean as Kaiba could be, Mokuba couldn't imagine Kaiba doing something like that to him.

"That's… that's really messed up." Mokuba stated.

"Yeah, he has a tendency to do stuff like that." Ryo responded.

_'Still, we have his last name, and now I know he doesn't go by his first name. Maybe Seto will like that info. After all, I don't think I'll be able to get anything truly useful out of either of them. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful Seto.'_

"'Kay. I'm done here, you guys aren't helping at all." Mokuba said before fleeing through the roof door and escaping down the stairs.

Not a minute later the three heard a yell from the stairwell and out emerged Jonouchi, Honda, and Ryuji.

"Holy crap! You're never gonna believe this guys!" Jonouchi shouted. "The eight year old totally just ran by us in the stairs!"

"No duh Jonouchi. He was just here. We were talking to him." Anzu stated.

"Stupid kid ran right into me. I would've fallen down the stairs if Honda didn't grab me." Ryuji complained.

"You're welcome." Honda said.

"Let's just enjoy lunch and forget about Mokuba for now." Anzu suggested.

Everyone agreed and sat down in a group circle, getting their lunches out of their bags. Ryo found the usual note from his mom in his lunch and glanced at it.

_'Remember not to sleep in class Sweetie! Mommy loves you~'_

_'...I feel like this was meant for Big Brother…'_

"Hey Ryo." Yugi called out, making Ryo look up. "What Mokuba and you were talking about… Was it your brother Bakura that threatened Kaiba?"

Ryo flinched. It's not like he was hiding it, but Ryo had the feeling that saying something about it would have had the usual chain of events. People being scared of Ryo because they're afraid of Bakura, everyone refusing to be around Ryo because of Bakura, Ryo having no friends.

"...Yes. It was. I knew it had to be him because of the knife. Big Brother keeps one with him all the time... Sorry that he stirred up something bad with Mokuba and his brother." Ryo replied.

"Don't worry about it Ryo!" Yugi flashed Ryo a smile. "Kaiba was bound to start something eventually anyway. I would just hope this all ends without someone getting stabbed."

"Oh that's not a problem. Big Brother's only stabbed people three and a half times so it's not likely he would actually stab Kaiba." Ryo said.

Jonouchi, Honda, and Ryuji all opened their mouths to say something.

"Before anyone says anything, no one is allowed to ask him." Anzu stated.

The three boys all closed their mouths.

The bell for the last period rang and Bakura sprinted into the classroom before he'd be counted tardy. He quickly went to his seat behind Atem and sat down.

"Hey." Bakura muttered, completely out of breath.

Atem simply nodded at him.

Bakura took a full minute to catch his breath then scowled at the shorter teen. "Still moody about lunch?"

"I'm not moody." Atem protested. "I don't get how you aren't though."

"Partly because I'm proud. Partly because I just don't give a bloody crap about what anyone thinks of me." Bakura replied.

Atem chuckled. "Don't know how I could have expected anything else from you."

As the teacher started attendance the two teens fell silent and Bakura pulled his phone out to play some games.

"Miho Nosaka."

The room stayed quiet.

"Ms. Nosaka?"

Once again there was no response.

"No Nosaka then."

Bakura and Atem glanced at each other.

"The annoying chick from lunch was Miho, right?" Bakura whispered.

"Yeah. Maybe she checked out. Who knows." Atem replied.

The rest of class went by as normal. Bakura fell asleep with his face on his phone, Atem took notes on two separate papers so Bakura could have one, and the teacher ended the first lesson of the school year rather quickly, leaving about ten minutes in class for fooling around. Bakura's phone buzzed under his face and his head shot up. As per usual, so did the wings.

"There's a red spot on your cheek." Atem noted as he held out the extra notes.

"I'm sure there is." Bakura took the notes from Atem and glanced over it. "Oh you've got to be bloody kidding me."

He put the notes in his bag and checked his phone. Just a notification from one of his games, nothing more. He decided to open the app anyway, since it wasn't anything difficult. His team returned from the ancient dungeon and found one of the ancient artifacts he needed for his collection. It reminded Bakura of something, but he couldn't remember exactly what.

"Oh yeah!" Bakura shouted, making half the class flinch, Atem included.

"Something good happen there?" Atem questioned.

"Sorta, yeah." Bakura put his phone down. "Okay, listen."

"I'm listening." Atem said.

"So my father works at the Domino Museum and he was talking to my older brother about how the museum is getting a whole exhibit, or something or other, full of Egyptian stuff and a lady from Egypt is coming with all of it. Now, normally not something I care about, but I thought you and Yugi might want to know. 'Cause you know, the whole… quarter Egyptian thing." Bakura explained.

"That actually sounds very interesting and thanks for thinking of us." Atem responded with a smile in his face.

"Ugh. The way you said that was so sickeningly kind it made me want to throw up." Bakura grumbled.

"You can drop the lone wolf act…" Atem complained.

"It's not a bloody act!" Bakura defended.

The bell rang, signalling freedom from the educational confines. The two walked out of their class together, leaving Atem with an odd feeling that had stuck with him since the beginning of class.

Where was Miho?

"Big Brother!" Ryo and Yugi shouted.

He'd worry about it later.

Ryo ran up to Bakura and threw his arms around his brother. "Big Brother, Yugi invited me over on Sunday to play Pokémon together!"

"That's cool." Bakura said as he adjusted Ryo's hair, trying to fix it since it was a little frizzy looking.

"If Ryo's coming over then you should too." Atem offered.

"Mmm…" Bakura thought for a moment as he continued to focus on Ryo's hair.

"Our house is a game store." Yugi said.

"Yeah, okay." Bakura replied immediately.

"Yay!" Ryo cheered. "Aki should come too!"

"Oh nononononono. He's more of an embarrassment than you are." Bakura protested.

Ryo pouted and let go of his brother.

"Oh Yugi, we need to get home. We're supposed to help Grandpa with the shop." Atem reminded him.

"Ahh, I'd totally forgotten! We gotta go!" Yugi frantically sprinted out of the school.

"Aaaand there he goes. I should go too. See you two tomorrow." Atem waved and walked out of school.

The pair waved back as they watched him leave.

"C'mon, Aki might be waiting for us." Ryo said and tugged on Bakura's sleeve.

"I doubt it." Bakura muttered as the walked outside.

Bakura and Ryo casually made their way across the courtyard when someone bumped into Bakura's arm as they walked by.

"Hey watch it- Ah crap…" Bakura scowled when he realized it was Kaiba.

Kaiba turned around and stared down at the brothers. "Watch it, faggot."

The two went wide-eyed and Ryo gasped, putting a hand over his mouth in shock.

"Rgh, what was that Kaiba?" Bakura reached for his pocket where his switchblade was.

"You heard him!"

Bakura and Ryo looked down to see Mokuba, who they hadn't noticed earlier. Ryo tried to hide behind his brother.

"Bloody hell, is that a gremlin?" Bakura questioned, confused about Mokuba's… well, entire existence.

"No, I'm a ninth grader!" Mokuba protested.

Ugh, that's worse." Bakura stated.

"This isn't about Mokuba." Kaiba claimed.

Bakura glanced back to Ryo for a second, who looked extremely nervous. "Then why is he stalking my little brother?"

"That's of no importance." Kaiba said.

"Oh like bloody hell it is!" Bakura grabbed his switchblade and pulled it out of his pocket, but Ryo grabbed his hand.

"Ryo, let go!" Bakura shouted.

Ryo's grip on Bakura's hand tightened and he shook his head.

"Looks like you're also your own brother's lapdog." Kaiba commented.

"Fucking say that again! I dare you!" Bakura yelled at the senior.

A car horn honked and caught the attention of the four teenagers. It was Akefia.

"Yo! Quit fooling around and let's go!" He called out.

"You got lucky Kaiba." Bakura yanked his hand out of Ryo's grip and put the switchblade back in his pocket.

"I'm sure I did." Kaiba started to walk away and Mokuba followed behind him.

Without Kaiba noticing, Mokuba turned around and stuck his tongue out. Bakura flicked him off in return.

"Is that supposed to intimidate me?" Mokuba asked sarcastically.

Akefia honked the horn again and Bakura tugged Ryo out of the courtyard.

"Say anything and I put you in the fridge when we get home." Bakura whispered.

"...Okay…" Ryo mumbled.

"What was that about?" Akefia asked as his younger brothers got in the car.

"It was absolutely nothing." Bakura stated.

Akefia frowned. "I know you well enough to know that wasn't nothing."

"Ask again and I will grab that steering wheel and make you hit something." Bakura threatened.

"Ehh, you've done it before so I'm not gonna tempt fate." Akefia said.

The rest of the ride home was quiet. Akefia wasn't use to the silence. Even after they got home and stood in the elevator it was still uncomfortably quiet. Thankfully there was no old lady this time to make it awkwarder. The brothers got to their floor and finally entered the apartment. Their mom was sitting on the couch and watching television as she tried unpacking a box of clothes, but clearly seemed too distracted by her show.

"Welcome home boys! How was school?" She looked up at her sons with a smile.

No one said anything for a moment until Ryo sat down to help with the box of clothes. "It was okay."

"Well that's good." She replied.

"Dad still at work?" Akefia asked as he walked into the kitchen and rummaged through the cabinets.

"Yep." She responded.

Bakura headed for his and Ryo's room.

"If you're going to spend the rest of the day in your room then could you at least unpack the rest of your boxes please?" His mother requested.

"Maybe." Bakura said as he went into his room and shut the door.

His mother sighed and pulled more clothes out of the box, starting to fold them.

"Big Brother and I are… um… We're going to… Is it okay if Big Brother and I go to a friend's home on Sunday?" Ryo struggled to ask.

His mother's eyes lit up at Ryo's question. "A friend's house!? Why of course you can! Oh, I'm so glad you've made such good friends here already! You're father and I were so worried about that you know. I'm going to have to meet all your new friends!"

"Whaaat? Baku and Ryo have plans!?" Akefia came back from the kitchen with a bag of chips. "So not fair! Uuugh, I have got to start hangin' out with younger people."

"Sweetie you're eighteen. You're supposed to hang out with mature older people." His mother commented.

"'Mature' my ass! I'm a highschool dropout without a job who wears cargo shorts and flip flops everyday! There's nothing mature about me." Akefia complained.

"If you know what the problem is then why don't you fix it?" Ryo asked.

"Just 'cause I'm complaining doesn't mean it's a problem." He said before he shoved chips in his mouth.

Ryo and their mother sighed.

Bakura laid on his bed and fooled around with the switchblade in his hands. He stared at the ceiling with a scowl on his face as he mumbled to himself.

"Stupid Kaiba. Thinking he can mess with me. Next time I see him, stab. Right in the face. Then he'll be number four and a half. I could get that gremlin too... Nobody calls me that and gets away with it."

Halfway across Domino City, Seto Kaiba was sitting in his office tapping away at the keyboard of his computer. Mokuba came in with a juice pouch in his hand.

"Working already, Seto? We just got home." Mokuba whined.

"I have important business to deal with right now, Mokuba. Don't bother me." Kaiba stated, not even looking up from the computer.

Mokuba pouted and looked down at the ground. "Can't we do something together?"

"Mokuba." His elder brother said in a stern voice.

Mokuba groaned and turned around to leave. "Fine, I didn't wanna spend time with you anyway."

As the door slammed shut Kaiba stared at it, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the silence that followed the sound of the door shutting. He brought his attention back to the computer and continued his search. Click after click after click and he finally found the records he was looking for.

"Akefia Bakura, no. Charise Bakura, no. Ryo Bakura, that's his brother, I'll look at that later. Ryutaro Bakura, no. ...Ah. Here he is. Thank you greedy British government workers." Kaiba clicked on the file and opened up all the information he needed.

"B/C student. Failed a provisional license test last month. Several school suspensions for cheating, fighting, skipping. Arrest record- wait, arrest record? Oh this is going to be good." Kaiba scrolled down with great anticipation to see what dirt he had dug up.

"Possession of a deadly weapon and assault with a deadly weapon. Hm, makes sense with that knife he carries around. Oh, charges dropped? Looks like you got away with it, lapdog." Kaiba frowned and kept scrolling.

"Medical records. Let's see, broken arm, braces, allergic to dogs. My my, how ironic for the lapdog. ...ADHD diagnosis? That may explain a few things, but I don't believe I can benefit from that." Kaiba reached the bottom of the file and leaned back in his chair.

_'With all this personal information you'll rue the day you crossed me, lapdog. Nobody disrespects Seto Kaiba and gets away with it.'_

He grabbed the phone on his desk and dialed his assistant.

"Yes, Master Seto?"

"I'm going to need a large printing order."

A long, exasperated sigh came from the other end of the line.

"How large are we talking here, Master Seto?"

"Hundreds."

The next morning, Bakura and Ryo got ready for school. Everyone but Akefia, who was still asleep, ate breakfast and their father drove the boys to school on his way to work. The only one left home was their mother. She finished washing the dishes from breakfast and opened one of the cabinets to put them away. When she opened the cabinet, a poorly placed container slipped out and landed on the floor, startling her.

"Oh bollocks! Ugh, get a hold of yourself Charise! It's just a stupid container!" She told herself as she passive aggressively grabbed the container and placed it on the counter.

"What the hell? Mom, was that you?" Akefia asked as he walked out of his room.

"Oh! I was just about to come wake you, Sweetie. Sorry, a container fell and nearly made me jump out of my own skin. Hehehe…" She said with a nervous giggle.

Akefia sighed at his mother and went to lay down on the couch. He turned on the television and flicked through channels. Charise watched for a little bit as he just laid there.

"You've done the same thing everyday for the past month since we moved here. Don't you want to go do something?" She asked him.

Akefia looked up at his mom. "What am I supposed to do? I don't work, I don't have friends."

"Then go out and make friends, or go get a job. I really don't mind you being home all day, I think I'd go mad from the loneliness anyway, but I can't imagine you're happy laying around like this." Charise said.

Akefia thought for a moment. It was true that he missed going out with his old friends, but making new friends was almost foreign to him. All his old friends were people he met in school and continued to be around after dropping out. New friends involved going to public places and meeting people, and just like his brothers, he wasn't great at that sort of thing. A job, on the other hand, meant he'd be responsible for things and if he messed up he'd get fired. Money was nice and all, and boy did he love money, but having people depend on him to do work for it… well, he didn't find it too worthwhile. And getting to sleep in pretty much everyday was something he really liked.

Charise leaned over the couch. "Look, here's an idea. Go work part-time at the museum. You'll get plenty of time to see that Egyptian exhibit, you could make friends with coworkers, and I'm sure they won't give you too much work since your father works there too. Ooh! And you can do a ton of father-son bonding!"

Akefia sat up on the couch. "...Mhm…"

Charise pouted at her eldest son. "Okay, why not just go over there for a visit today and see what you think of it. Next time you can decide if you want to work there or not."

"I guess…" Akefia muttered.

Charise walked around the couch and grabbed Akefia's hand, trying to get him up from the couch. "C'mon, up up up!"

She wasn't able to budge him at all, but he got up anyway since she was trying so hard.

"Okay, I'm up. Geez."

"Good! Now get dressed and go drive down there." She demanded.

Akefia groaned, but went back to his room anyway and threw on his red jacket. He rubbed his hands through his hair to flatten it out and put on his flip flops.

"You gonna do okay without me today, little buddy?" He asked as he tapped on a glass cage sitting on his dresser.

The head of a small white snake popped out of the sand in the cage. It stuck it's tongue out at him and went back to hiding.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Moving is tough, I don't like it either." He told the snake as he grabbed his keys and phone from his bed.

Akefia walked out of his room and through the apartment to the door.

"And don't come back without your brothers!" Charise shouted as he left and shut the door behind him.

Akefia walked down the hall to the elevator and got on with the same old lady as usual. They stood there in silence as it went to the first floor. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that she kept glancing at him. He sighed and shuffled his feet a bit, wishing the elevator would go faster. When the doors finally opened he rushed out of the elevator and exited the building, walking down the street to his car. When he got in he sat in the seat for a moment without turning on the car.

_**'Everyone here is afraid of you.'** _

Akefia punched the steering wheel, making the horn go off and startling a few people walking on the sidewalk.

"Shut up." He whispered.

He turned on the car, keeping the roof up and stereo off the whole drive to the museum. It wasn't far away so he was able to remember the way there from the last time he was at the museum.

At the museum, a curator, Mr. Kanekura walked through the display area in search of his coworker.

"Ah, Ryutaro!" He called out when he spotted his coworker. "One of the tour guides is out sick today. Can you do the tour for him? It's starts in an hour and there's no one else available."

"Hm? Sure, I don't see why not." Ryutaro replied.

"Good, good. We've been a bit short staffed as of late. It's starting to get unbearable around here." Kanekura complained.

"Things will only get busier next month." Ryutaro commented.

"Excuse me, Ryutaro." Kanekura and Ryutaro looked over at a seemingly nervous tour guide. "There's a young man here asking for you. He says he's your stepson."

"Oh no." He grumbled as he quickly walked past her and towards the entrance of the museum.

He found his stepson sitting on a bench and staring at everything in the museum. Akefia looked over and waved at his stepfather.

"Sup, Dad." He greeted.

"I was most certainly not expecting you to show up here, let alone outside the apartment at all." Ryutaro stated.

"Oh ha ha. I get it, I'm lazy." Akefia got up from the bench. "Nice to see you too."

Ryutaro sighed. "It's not that I'm not happy to see you here, it's just that I'm busy and I can't spend all day watching you."

"I'm eighteen, you don't need to watch me ya' know. It's not like I could get snatched or somethin'."

"That's not my concern. I know you can handle yourself, but I also know you have sticky fingers and everything in this museum is priceless. Or at least close to it."

Akefia acted shocked. "Me!? With sticky fingers!? I am appalled at your accusation. Appalled, Sir!"

"Touch anything and I will personally ban you from this museum myself."

"Fer once, wasn't plannin' on it."

"Good. Now you're going to spend the day in my office until you need to pick the boys up from school."

"Whaat!? That's no fun! I wanted to look at stuff…"

"Too bad, let's go."

Ryutaro dragged a reluctant Akefia to the back of the museum where his office was.

"You're not gonna, like, leave me in here… are you?" Akefia asked, somewhat nervous.

"No." His stepfather replied. "I have paperwork to do so I'll be in here too. I have a tour to do in about an hour though."

"Well… Can I do that?"

"Do what?"

"Be on the tour."

"...I don't see why not. I suppose I can watch you and do the tour at the same time."

"Schweeeet!"

"Now settle down, I need to work."

Akefia groaned and sat down in an extra chair to the side of the room. He was pretty quiet for a few minutes, just sitting there listening to nothing but the sound of his stepfather's pen on his paperwork. He tried to get comfortable in the chair, but nothing seemed to satisfy him. He pulled his phone out to find something to do, choosing to play a game. The volume was all the way up and the start up sound echoed through the room, surprising Akefia and Ryutaro, who glared at his stepson.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Akefia apologized as he closed the game.

His stepfather sighed and went back to his work.

_'Maybe I could text Baku.'_

Akefia looked back down at his phone and brought up his text messages.

_'hey whadup bro'_

_'perfect timing. settle an argument im having. whats something u can show but cant see?'_

_'idk success'_

There were a few minutes until Bakura replied again.

_'bitch says no.'_

_'damn :/'_

Bakura didn't reply after that and Akefia got bored again. He tried texting Ryo.

_'sup kiddo'_

_'Hi Aki! :D'_

_'bored help me'_

_'Go out and do something.'_

_'im at the museum but the old man is making me stay in his office'_

_'I'm sorry. :( I don't think I can help with that. The teacher might see me, I need to go.'_

_'fine'_

Akefia put his phone in his lap and stared down at it. He wasn't expecting this to be so… boring when he left. At least at home he had the television and snacks and his mother who was much more fun. He looked around the office and stared at books, folders, and stacks of old newspapers. Nothing that really interested him. From his seat he could see a photo on Ryutaro's desk. A family photo. It was an old one since Akefia was only tall enough to be at Ryutaro's waist. He didn't have the scar on his face yet either and was the only one of the kids that looked happy with a big grin on his face. Bakura had the meanest looking scowl and his hair was really short. Akefia remembered it was just after Bakura was forced to get a haircut and was absolutely pissed about getting his picture taken like that. Ryo was being held by their mother and looked like he was going to cry. He got scared by the toy used to make little kids smile.

"Do you need something?" His stepfather asked, clearly bothered.

"Huh?" It dawned on Akefia that he had been staring for quite some time. "Oh, uh… No, just bored. Lookin' at stuff."

Ryutaro stood up and grabbed a stack of newspapers from his desk. He walked over and held them out to Akefia, who took them, but didn't understand why.

"If you're bored why not read those. They're all in Japanese, but I'm sure you can read it just fine. You might find something interesting." Ryutaro explained as he went back to sit down at his desk.

Akefia groaned. He could speak it just as fine as the rest of the family, but reading and writing Japanese wasn't really his forte. He could try, but he couldn't guarantee he'd understand all of the papers.

He started with the top newspaper and flipped through it. It was dated only a month ago, a day after the family moved into town. Nothing in the paper that he could read properly caught his attention for long and he ended up putting it on the shelf behind him in favor of moving on to the next one. He shelved newspaper after newspaper, not finding any of them interesting. He got down to the last newspaper, one from three days ago, and immediately seemed curious about it. The front page's headline said something about a discovery and the picture with the article was of several pieces of what looked liked golden artifacts. Akefia sat up in the chair and read through the article best he could. Unfortunately, he couldn't make out half of it and what he could read wasn't anything that made sense on its own. He got up and stood in front of his stepfather's desk.

"Read this to me." He demanded, waving the newspaper in front of Ryutaro's face.

"Stop that." Ryutaro snatched the paper from Akefia's hand and adjusted his glasses to read it. "Oh, this is about the Millennium Items."

Akefia leaned across the desk to get a look at the front page. "Is that what those things are?"

"Yes. They're going to be part of the Egyptian exhibit here. The collection was missing one piece until it was unearthed in the desert a few weeks ago. See the one in the middle?"

Akefia looked closely at the image where Ryutaro was pointing at. The item he spotted looked like a ring with little pointy prods on it. He couldn't take his eyes off it.

"Yeah… it's really… pretty."

"That's the Millennium Ring, the last one found. It was missing for centuries and now that the collection's been completed everyone in the archeology field has been itching to see them. Luckily, the museum was the first one to strike up a deal so the Millennium Items will be featured here."

"Will I… be able to see the… the ring?"

"When it gets here, yes."

Akefia stared at the picture a little longer.

"Can I cut it out?" He asked.

"Uh… I don't need it anymore so I guess so." Ryutaro answered, looking at his stepson with a curious expression.

Akefia proceeded to tear at the newspaper around the picture until it was all the way out of the paper. He held up the picture and continued to look at it, focusing on the Millennium Ring.

"Get off my desk now, you're messing everything up." Ryutaro ordered.

Akefia stood up and walked back to his chair all while still staring at the photo.

Ryutaro glanced at his watch. "I should probably get ready for that tour now."

Akefia glanced up from the photo, folded it, and put it in his pocket. "Awesome, tour time! Let's go!"

Ryutaro got up from his desk to leave and Akefia followed close behind him. He turned around to face his stepson for a moment.

"It's a long tour so keep an eye on the time. I wouldn't recommend being late to pick up your brothers." He said.

"Righto!" Akefia replied with a salute.

At Domino High School, Bakura had his head resting on his desk. He wasn't sleeping, just bored. The entire class period he kept shaking one if his legs out if habit. Like usual, he didn't want to listen in class and impatiently waited for the period to end. He blankly stared at the empty desk across from him. Once again Miho was absent from class, neither him nor Atem saw her at lunch. He wasn't concerned with where she was, not did he cared. He found her annoying and somewhat creepy anyway. As odd as her absence seemed, Bakura was happier looking at the empty desk rather than the alternative. A tap on his shoulder made him look forward to see Atem holding a piece of notebook paper, clearly it was notes taken during class.

"Mooooore…?" Bakura groaned, covering his head with his arms.

"You know, I'm rather curious how you handle the classes you have without me." Atem stated, placing the copy of notes next to Bakura's head.

Bakura glanced up from his desk. "It's only gym and English. And I already speak English, so that one's an easy A."

"Isn't that technically cheating?" Atem asked.

"I dunno. As long as they don't take me out of the class I'm not complaining. And besides, my name is completely Japanese so the teacher doesn't know I'm from Europe. I just try not to talk in there so I don't accidentally say something in English." Bakura answered.

"I'm sure the British slang would give you away."

"Oh yeah, no. Definitely."

The bell rang and Bakura quickly stuffed the page of notes into his bag as he and Atem left the classroom. The walk down the hall was rather casual compared to their usual sprint to leave the campus.

"I'm still worried about Miho…" Atem grumbled.

"Eh, don't be. She probably just freaked out so bad about yesterday that she didn't want to show her face to us again." Bakura theorized.

"Ugh, don't remind me about that." The shorter groaned.

"What, embarrassed? Don't you worry Atem, you're a member of the club now, just like me and probably plenty of other kids here."

"Club? What club?"

"You know, Gay Club. First rule of Gay Club, don't talk about Gay Club."

"We have a club?"

"How the bloody hell should I know, this is only my third day here. Tch, don't tell me you've never watched… no, it's probably not in Japanese. Never mind."

Atem sighed. He had no clue what Bakura was talking about, nor did he want to know. Yelling from across the hall caught the attention of the two teens who turned to see Ryo and Yugi running towards them… with several girls following closely behind the pair.

"Big Brother! Help! Please!" Ryo shouted.

He ran straight to Bakura, who grabbed hold of his little brother and spun them around so he was like a shield to Ryo. Yugi backed up against a set of lockers, trying to catch his breath. All the girls came to a stop in front of Bakura.

Bakura turned to face the girls. "Alright! All of you get the bloody hell away from my precious baby brother or your parents will be getting news that your bodies were fished out the sewer!"

The girls collectively flinched and backed up. They slowly dispersed in different directions until none of them were left. Despite them being gone, Ryo continued to maintain a tight grip on the back of Bakura's uniform.

"I get you were trying to protect Ryo there… but did you have to threaten to kill them?" Atem argued.

"I didn't say anything about harming them, only that their bodies would be found. Besides, girls are like predators. It takes a bigger, more threatening predator to scare them off." Bakura defended.

"Like Predator?" Ryo suggested.

"I would say yes, Ryo, but that would be an insult to Predator. Plus there is no predator stronger than Predator." Bakura stated.

"What was that about anyway?" Atem questioned.

"Ryo keeps getting chased and surrounded and stuff by all the girls! They stayed away for awhile when me and Jonouchi were around him, but I think they're starting to ignore my presence." Yugi explained.

"It's a damn shame we're apart from each other all day. I can't protect you anymore like I use to. Nobody's allowed to terrorize you but me." Bakura said to Ryo.

"I think your priorities are a little off there." Atem commented.

"No, it's okay. His priorities have always been like that." Ryo defended.

Bakura stepped away from Ryo, making the younger let go of him. In return Bakura grabbed hold of Ryo's hand and tugged slightly.

"Outside." He mumbled.

Ryo nodded at him. "We should go wait for Aki."

"We can wait with you guys since our Grandpa doesn't need help with the shop today." Yugi offered.

"Oh, you don't need to do that." Ryo objected.

"Nonsense, we don't mind. Right, Bro?" Yugi reiterated.

"Yep." Atem said with a smile.

The four teens stepped out of the school building and past the courtyard to the fence. Bakura and Ryo sat up on the fence to wait while Yugi sat down on the sidewalk and Atem leaned against the wall. Ryo leaned his head against Bakura's shoulder and it continued to be quiet between the group for a little bit.

Yugi looked up at the others. "Soooo, I guess I'll be the one to break the ice about it. Nobody seen Kaiba or Mokuba today?"

Bakura and Atem glanced at each other as if trying to figure out the answer for one another.

"No." They both said.

"Well nobody could keep up bullying everyday, right? They must need to take a break every once in awhile." Ryo stated.

"Him and the gremlin are probably planning something big." Bakura thought.

"Knowing Kaiba that may be true, but unless it actually happens I wouldn't worry about them. Then again if you didn't egg him on yesterday he might not have confronted you like that…" Atem grumbled.

"Yeeeaah. Honestly, he did catch me off guard. I was not expecting that. He didn't even threaten me or anything. He just called me a fag. Which still makes me want to stab him."

" _Please_ stop saying that…"

"What, stab?"

Atem sighed and glared at Bakura, who snickered in response.

Not a moment later, Akefia drove up and stopped in front of the teens. Ryo and Bakura hopped down from the fence.

"Yo, Bros! And yo, I'm assuming Bros' friends!" Akefia greeted.

Ryo pointed to Atem. "Atem, Big Brother's friend." He then pointed at Yugi. "Yugi, my friend." He finally pointed at Akefia. "Akefia, our eldest brother."

"Hi!" The two said with a smile and a wave.

"Alright, see you later Man." Bakura said, tossing his bag in the back and getting into the car.

"You too." Atem replied.

Ryo sat down in the back. "Bye-bye, Yugi!"

"Bye Ryo! Bye Bakura! Bye… uh… Akefia!" Yugi shouted.

"Alright, I'm ready to go home. Get a move on Kef." Bakura ordered.

"Your wish is my command, Your Bitchiness." Akefia replied in a sarcastic tone as he started to drive off.

Yugi and Atem waited for a moment to watch the three brothers drive off. When they were out of sight, Yugi turned to Atem.

"So… Did Bakura call Mokuba a gremlin?" He asked.

"I think so…?" Atem answered, not too sure of himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of research I had to do for the sake of the references alone is excessive and unnecessary...
> 
> Anyway! If you want a good laugh and were maybe curious about Bakura's lunch box, then Google 'Bob the Builder lunch box'. It's one of the first two, whichever one you want it to be. I promise you will not be disappointed.
> 
> Okay, sorry this chapter is literally all over the place. What I had planned for this chapter was only 4,072 words and I always set a word count quota based on the length of the first chapter, so everything past that was thrown together and it kinda has a lower quality compared to chapter one now... but, chapter three will have one enormously long scene so it won't feel so... all over the place.
> 
> Um, thank you for continuing to read and I hope you look forward to the next chapter and final part of the Kaiba arc! Then the Mariks will finally show up~


	3. Destiny's Bag of Spilling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... there's been a change of plans folks... I meant for the first half of this chapter to be like, a handful of paragraphs and the second half was nonexistent. So the Kaiba confrontation will be next chapter and the Mariks will be in chapter five. I know, I know. I'm ready to get to them too... just stick around a little longer please. My writing motto is "No plot is set in stone until the story is finished" so this was bound to happen anyway. I hope you enjoy this chapter anyway, I was super duper motivated in writing it, even if it's not what I planned on!
> 
> ((There's a lot of stuff that was italicized after the midway point but it didn't show up during the preview and I don't know how to fix it :/ That problem isn't present with the FF.net and WattPad versions so I have no clue what's going on there. Sorry for that issue. If it really matters then you can go read those versions instead.))

Ryo sat quietly in the back seat of his father's car. For once the ride to school was filled with nothing but dead silence. Bakura was asleep in the front with the seat leaned back a bit so he wasn't able to complain like usual. The car came to a stop in front of the school and Ryo grabbed his bag to get out.

"Have a good day, kiddo." Ryutaro said.

"You too, Father!" Ryo replied as he got out of the car and shut the door behind him.

Ryutaro nudged Bakura on the arm to wake him up. "Come on, wake up. It was difficult enough getting you out of bed."

Bakura opened one eye and glared at his father. "It's Saturday. I shouldn't be up, let alone going to school right now."

Ryutaro sighed. "Things work differently here, Son. You're going to have to get used to it."

"I could just leave as soon as I get out of the car."

"If I find out you missed even one of your classes today, you are grounded."

"But I have plans tomorrow!"

"Well that's just a damn shame isn't it."

Bakura groaned and crossed his arms. He didn't want to budge from the seat, but knew he no other option.

"Look," Ryutaro started. "just get through today best you can. Tomorrow you can have the day to yourself and your friend, but you have to make it through today first. If Ryo can do it then so can you."

Bakura wanted to contest that last statement, but took his father's words to heart anyway. He already made it through the past five days. He could give it one last push and survive Saturday. Without saying anything else, Bakura grabbed his bag from the back seat and got out of the car. As soon as Bakura shut the door, his father drove off. Bakura stood next to Ryo on the sidewalk and waited for the car to disappear from sight.

"Alright, I'm gone." Bakura said as he started to walk down the street.

"No!" Ryo grabbed his brother by the sleeve and tried to stop him. "Big Brother please! Don't you want to go to Yugi and Atem's tomorrow?"

Bakura stopped in his tracks. He stood there for a few moments before pulling Ryo's hand off of him and turning around. Ryo stared at him with a confused expression as Bakura placed a hand on the top of his head and ruffled his hair.

"Stay in school, Ryo." Bakura turned back around and began walking away again.

"Noooope!" Ryo ran to stand in front of Bakura and tried to hold him back.

Bakura groaned. "Ugh… I hate it when you suddenly get a backbone."

"In school, now!" Ryo ordered.

Bakura found it off putting whenever Ryo acted like he was in charge. Ryo started pushing Bakura backwards until the only option he had was to turn around or allow himself to be pushed down. He reluctantly walked back to school with Ryo and entered the courtyard.

"Don't worry Big Brother! I know you'll be okay, it's only a Saturday." Ryo reassured him.

"I don't think you understand the importance of a Saturday, Ryo." Bakura grumbled.

As they came up to the front entrance of the school, they were stopped by two large men in black suits standing in front of the doors. Their eyes were covered by their sunglasses and were holding stacks of booklets.

"Every student is required to take one." One of the men said, presenting two booklets to the brothers.

Bakura and Ryo were confused, but nonetheless took the booklets. It was only a few pages thick and held together by a spine with a front and back cover. The other man held the door open for them and they walked into the school building.

"Oookay… that was weird. Is this normal in Japanese schools?" Bakura wondered out loud.

"Maybe it's a school-wide assignment." Ryo suggested.

Bakura felt something odd around him and glanced around to see other students looking in his direction. They were eerily quiet except for some whispering between groups. Bakura could see that everyone was holding a copy of the same booklet. Ryo opened to the first page of the booklet to see what it was about and went wide-eyed at what he saw.

"Um… Big Brother, you might want to look at this." Ryo said in a nervous tone.

Bakura looked down at the open booklet to see his picture on the page and not just any picture, it was his mugshot. Above his picture it said 'Presented to the student body by Kaiba Corp.'

He frantically opened up the copy already in his own hands and saw the same page. He quickly flipped through the pages, seeing his previous school transcripts, his medical records, and unfortunately even his arrest records. There was even a miscellaneous page that revealed his orientation. Not that he minded people knowing that, even if they were someone that would bully him for it, but he was use to keeping it on the down low at his old school since he could've been expelled for it. At the bottom of the same page it said that him and Atem were dating. That was the final straw on the camel's back.

" _Kaaaaaibaaaaa_!" Bakura screamed as he aggressively crumpled up the booklet, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it.

His yelling startled several of the students around him and made Ryo flinch. Ryo reached a hand out to his brother but Bakura grabbed his hand and yanked him towards the closest male restroom. They entered the restroom where there were three other boys grouped in a circle reading the booklet.

"Woah, dude! There he is!" One of them said, pointing at Bakura.

"Out!" Bakura yelled.

The three boys freaked and ran out of the restroom, leaving Bakura and Ryo in there alone. Bakura checked to make sure no one was hiding in the stalls then turned to Ryo, making his younger brother more nervous than he already was.

"Uh… B-Big Brother- Eep!" Ryo yelped when Bakura pushed him against the wall and pinned him there by the shoulders.

"You are not going to anyone about this, Ryo! Not Mother! Not Father! Not Akefia! _Not anyone_!" Bakura ordered.

Ryo could tell his brother was more pissed off than he'd ever been in his life. It truly did scare Ryo. He could see the anger in Bakura's usually lifeless brown eyes. It was understandable considering he just had his life story and a few deep secrets revealed to the entire student body and probably staff as well. He was not only out for Kaiba's blood, but Kaiba's life as well. It hurt Ryo to see his big brother so wronged by someone. Ryo slowly reached his arms around Bakura's neck and pulled his brother close to him.

Bakura was somewhat confused by Ryo's action. Of course, it was right in line with something Ryo would do, but he didn't expect it. He was so blinded by anger at the moment and the hug was such a mood switch that he didn't know what to feel anymore. His hands were shaking as they moved on their own and wrapped themselves around Ryo's waist. Bakura pressed his face against Ryo's shoulder and his little brother moved a hand to place it in his hair.

The restroom door flew open suddenly and both the brothers flinched. Bakura looked up and Ryo held on tighter to his brother. From behind the door Atem and Yugi emerged, clearly in a rush.

"There you are! We saw you two down the hall and we tried to get your attention but you ran in here." Atem said, trying to catch his breath.

Bakura stepped towards them, forcing Ryo to release his grip on Bakura.

"Did you read it?" Bakura asked in a serious tone of voice.

Atem and Bakura held eye contact for a few seconds until Atem looked away and towards the floor.

"Did. You. Read. It." Bakura repeated.

Atem was silent for what felt like forever and sighed.

"Yes, I read it. All of it." He muttered.

"Then get out!" Bakura shouted at him.

Atem glanced up at Bakura. His white hair was covering his eyes so Atem couldn't tell what he was thinking. Atem was sure that his friend must have felt betrayed though. Ryo put a hand on Bakura's arm, but Bakura just swatted him away.

"I… I'm-" Atem started.

"I don't want to hear it!" Bakura interrupted. "You know, I would assume a guy like you would respect a friend's privacy! The whole damn school thinks we're dating now thanks to that bloody book! And no matter what either of us say no one's going to believe us! Being seen with each other is only going to make it worse, so just stay away from me!"

Atem clenched his fists. "...I'm sorry, Bakura. I know it makes me just as bad as everyone else that read the book, but… this is probably going to sound weird… but, I read it because I wanted to know more about you."

"What?" Bakura looked up, making his eyes peek out from behind his bangs.

Yugi stepped to the side to close and lock the restroom door. He didn't think it would be the right moment for someone to walk in and interrupt the conversation.

"You just… You strike me as one of those people who will answer any personal question someone asks them, but will never give the full story… When I got handed that book and- and realized what it was, I wanted to throw it away… but, a part of me thought that it would be the only way I could get to know certain things about you. It's an invasion of privacy, yes, and an invasion originally made by Kaiba no less, but you're such an important friend to me, Bakura. One I met just six days ago and is almost like my complete opposite in every way. You'll threaten anyone with a knife, you make death threats to innocent people, you sleep in every class all day, you don't even pretend to pay attention, you have the mouth of a British sailor, and you've been _arrested_ before, of all things. And yet… I continue to talk to you, sit with you, eat lunch with you, I write twice as many notes in class because I know you won't do it for yourself, and I'm willing to invade your personal privacy just to know more about you." Atem paused for a moment to gather the rest of his thoughts. "You're a unique friend, Bakura. One I believe destiny wants me to keep for a long time. And as long as you and I, and Yugi and Ryo, and all our other friends know the truth, what does it matter what others like Kaiba believe?"

Ryo and Yugi smiled at Atem, believing his explanation was enough to quell Bakura's anger.

Bakura dropped his gaze to the ground. He'd never had a friend so close that actually wanted to know about him. In fact, he never considered anyone he hung out with at his old school a friend. He didn't care for them and they didn't care for him. It was just people he sat with after school that weren't as intimidated by him as everyone else. He almost never saw the same person more than a handful of times anyway and half of them didn't even go to his school. Atem, on the other hand… cared. No one ever cared before. If he got into a fight nobody stopped him and nobody helped him, but Atem was someone that would do both at the drop of a hat. Atem truly was his friend, probably the only real friend he'd had. Maybe… the only real friend he ever _will_ have. Bakura looked up and met eyes with Atem.

"The more I hear that disgusting kindness and destiny bullcrap, the more I want to throw up." Bakura said, but the look in his eyes told Atem he was joking.

"Drop the lone wolf act already." Atem replied with a smile.

The two took a step closer to each other and shook hands, rekindling their friendship.

"Don't worry, Bakura. I'll text everyone I know to help out in getting rid of these books!" Yugi announced, pulling out his phone.

"Thanks, Yugi." Bakura said with a slight smile.

The two pairs of brothers hung around in the restroom waiting for the last second they could leave without being late for first period. They decided they could avoid the most trouble by being as invisible as school would let them. Yugi and Ryo sat on the sink counter with Atem leaning against the wall and Bakura pacing back and forth in the room going over Ryo's copy of the booklet.

"M'kay! I've sent a mass text to Anzu, Jonouchi, Honda, Ryuji, Hanasaki, Nezumi, and Imouri. Anzu already texted me back saying she'll help, but no word from anyone else yet." Yugi said right before his phone buzzed. "Oh, and there's Hanasaki. He agreed to help too."

"Since when were you friends with Imouri?" Atem questioned.

"Since the first day of school. We have a class together and he apologized for that whole 'Chinese card game fiasco' that happened over the break." Yugi answered.

"Yugi, you texted me too." Ryo said, checking his phone.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry, hehe. I was just selecting everyone I recognized as in my grade." Yugi explained.

Atem glanced over at Bakura who seemed to get antsier the more he read through the booklet. He must have re-read it ten times already and Atem was sure it was doing more harm each time. Bakura started getting fidgety, running a hand through his hair over and over and over again, and was switching between walking fast and standing in place while shifting his feet around. He finally got fed up and threw the booklet into one of the stalls.

"Okay, maybe it's time for you to calm down." Atem suggested.

"Calm down… Calm down, calm down. How the bloody hell am I supposed to calm down!?" Bakura snapped. "Kaiba put my personal business all over the school and you're telling me I should _calm down_!? I gotta give that fucker the proper credit at least, I've never been dicked around like this before! This is something for the history books! And for once I don't think stabbing him will be all that easy to do."

"No stabbing people, Big Brother." Ryo ordered.

Bakura pulled his switchblade out of his pocket. "Don't tell me what to do, Ryo!"

"Hey, hey! Put it do-" Atem froze when Bakura walked up to him and pointed the switchblade at him.

Ryo and Yugi held their breath. Atem slowly reached up and gently placed his hand around Bakura's wrist.

"You wouldn't hurt me, Bakura. We're friends." Atem stated.

"How do you know that? How… how can you put so much trust in another person?" Bakura frantically questioned.

"It's called faith and I have faith that you're a good person. If you don't think you're a good person then go ahead and stab me." Atem answered.

Bakura glanced from the switchblade to Atem and back to the switchblade again. His hand started shaking and he eventually dropped his arm to his side.

"I can't do it…" Bakura muttered.

"Then no matter what you think about yourself, you're a good person." Atem told him.

Yugi let out a sigh of relief while Ryo jumped off the counter to run up to Bakura and put his arms around his brother.

"Bakura," Atem started, putting a hand on the taller's shoulder. "this is clearly starting to mess with your head. Let Yugi and his friends deal with collecting the books. I'll deal with Kaiba if we see him. He wouldn't have targeted you if it weren't for me in the first place and you're in no mental state to make a proper decision that doesn't involve stabbing."

Bakura stayed quiet. He looked at Ryo, who stared at Bakura with a worried expression. He put a hand on Ryo's cheek and Ryo flashed him a very faint smile in return. Bakura turned to Atem and nodded.

"Yeah, okay." He mumbled.

Yugi glanced down at his phone when it buzzed again. "I got Jonouchi and Honda on board now too. And we have two minutes until the bell rings. There shouldn't be many people left in the halls so I say we go now."

The four teens covertly left the restroom and separated to go to their individual classes. Atem and Bakura walked into Ms. Chono's class where everyone stared at them as they moved to their seats and sat down. The bell rang just a few seconds later. Bakura tried to keep his head down, but he could tell plenty of people were looking at him.

Ms. Chono stood up to address the class. "Alright kids, I know that even though the staff has been ordered not to mess with these 'book things', I still don't like it. So anyone who has one, come put it on my desk and we can all forget it ever happened. Because if you don't I'll do a desk inspection."

Not a second later most of the students rushed to the front of the class and placed their copy of the booklet on Ms. Chono's desk. It was assumed the kids that didn't do so had already thrown theirs away.

Class went by with nothing more than lots of staring and eventually everyone moved on to second period. Atem and Bakura sat in the back corner like they always did in that class. Atem could hear two girls across the classroom whispering to each other.

"They look so cute together."

"Oh no way. They are total opposites."

"Um, hello. Opposites attract."

"Yeah but, they don't even match aesthetically."

"Love doesn't have to match, ugh."

Bakura dropped his head onto his desk and Atem looked down at him with a frown.

At lunch Bakura initially wanted them to sit away from each other, but Atem argued that that would mean Kaiba won and Atem wouldn't allow that. Every time a group of guys walked past them they would shout a few rude comments, but Atem ignored them and Bakura tried to do the same.

"You're not going to eat?" Atem asked, noticing Bakura didn't get any lunch.

"I'm not hungry." Bakura grumbled.

"Okay, Hell just froze over." Atem commented.

Bakura stayed quiet, not feeling like starting an argument with Atem.

"So, I've been looking around, but I don't see Kaiba anywhere. In fact, I haven't seen Kaiba since Tuesday. He's a senior so the only time we would see him is at lunch." Atem stated.

"Son of a bitch is probably hiding." Bakura muttered.

"No sign of Miho either." Atem added.

Bakura put his head on the table. "Don't care."

Atem took a quick glance around and spotted a short kid carrying a large stack of the booklets towards a trashcan. He dumped them all in the garbage and when he turned around a boy threw another copy at him, making him put his arms up to defend himself. When the boy walked away he reached down to pick up the booklet and tossed it in the trash. Atem was sure he recognized the kid from somewhere. The kid saw him staring and waved at Atem before running up to him.

"Hey Atem, long time no see." The kid said.

He had black hair and lines across his cheeks. His nose also had a black dot on it.

"Oh, Nezumi! Yeah, it has been. Are you helping out Yugi?" Atem replied.

Nezumi nodded. "Yugi texted me asking to help throw away all these books and I… I still felt responsible for that… yo-yo thing, so I couldn't bring myself to say no."

"That's nice of you to help out a friend. Bakura needs all the help he can get today." Atem said, glancing at Bakura who looked up.

Bakura and Nezumi stared at each other for a moment, both feeling awkward.

"...A-are you him? The guy… in the book?" Nezumi nervously asked.

"Yeah. Got a problem with it?" Bakura responded.

"N-no! No… I just haven't ever seen you before." Nezumi replied.

"Nezumi," Atem started. "aren't you in Yugi's grade? What are you doing at first lunch?"

"Oh, well… the school messed up my schedule and put me in the wrong lunch, so I've been hiding everyday since I don't eat lunch and…" Nezumi glanced around nervously and leaned in so he could whisper. "the upperclassmen like to bully me."

"You can always sit with us, you know." Atem offered.

"T-thanks Atem, but I almost never come into the cafeteria anyway. Plus I'm trying to get my schedule fixed, so you probably won't be seeing me again." Nezumi said before spotting a booklet on the ground and rushing over to pick it up.

A few girls walked by and dropped their booklets at his feet while giggling, making Nezumi scramble to gather them up.

"Well, he's dedicated. I'll give him that." Bakura commented.

At the end of lunch the duo parted ways and Bakura headed to the boy's locker room for gym. Mr. Karita came down the stairs from the locker room and stopped Bakura in his tracks.

"Move." Bakura demanded.

"No can do. The boys have expressed a 'concern' about you being in the locker room with them." Mr. Karita said, seemingly glad to deliver the news to Bakura.

"You've got to be kidding me! This is a public school and that's discrimination! I could get you fired!" Bakura shouted.

"Now, now." Mr. Karita attempted to calm Bakura down. "I think you'll find that I'm the one with the upper hand here. Seto Kaiba may have paid us all off, principal included, but that doesn't mean I can't go to the school board with that book and get you expelled."

Bakura scowled at Mr. Karita and clenched his fists in anger.

"But, I'm sure there's something that could be done to keep me quiet. Maybe something involving that innocent little brother of yours."

Bakura went wide-eyed and stared at the ground.

"Twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday, he comes to my office before school starts so I can assign him some… private exercises."

Bakura's heart started beating faster and it took every ounce of willpower in him not to pull out his switchblade. Letting something like… like _that_ happen to Ryo, he couldn't do it. He could never, never, ever even consider letting something like that happen to Ryo. No matter what happened to him, he wouldn't allow someone else to hurt Ryo. The bell rang for class to start, pulling Bakura from his thoughts.

"Listen, I'm willing to work with you here. I'll give you 'til Monday to decide. If you say no, I bring the book to the school board. If you say yes, your brother comes to my office Tuesday morning. Why don't you take the day off to think about it? Go hide in the bathroom or something. I'll even mark you here on my attendance so no one knows you're skipping." Mr. Karita offered.

Bakura looked up at him, then off to the side. He didn't want to see such a disgusting excuse for a human being. He simply nodded at Mr. Karita and turned around to walk away. He escaped to the nearest restroom and ran inside. Luckily it was empty. Bakura pulled out his phone and texted Ryo.

_'u at lunch on the roof right?'_

_'Yes.'_

Bakura let out a sigh of relief. He knew nothing could happen to Ryo yet, but knowing he was okay was enough to calm Bakura's nerves. He left the restroom and walked halfway across campus to the stairwell for the roof. In the stairwell it was dark and quiet. The only sound he heard was the echo of his feet on the metal stairs. There were no windows and no light source so he couldn't see much. Bakura spotted a small glow at the top of the stairs and when he rounded the corner he saw the rooftop door. He walked up the last few stairs and pushed the door open. The sudden light from outside almost blinded him.

The teens having lunch all turned to the door to see Bakura. Anzu, Jonouchi, Honda, and Ryuji hadn't physically met Bakura before and only had what they've heard and read about him to go by. They were somewhat put on edge by his sudden appearance, especially since no one knew why he came to the roof.

"B-Big Brother…?" Ryo whispered.

"Ryo, come here!" Bakura called out.

Ryo immediately got up and ran to Bakura. Bakura wrapped his arms around Ryo in such a tight hug that it almost startled Ryo. Sure, sometimes Bakura could be affectionate, but the hug seemed more along the lines of Bakura trying to comfort himself. Ryo didn't want to ruin it for his brother, so he waited for Bakura pull away. Eventually Bakura did let go of Ryo, but soon put a hand through Ryo's hair and brushed it away from his face. Ryo looked at Bakura with wide eyes and a curious expression.

"Are you okay?" Bakura asked in a soft voice.

"Um, yep. I mean, a few people today have thought I was you, but other than that everything is okay. Oh, and a couple of girls wanted to know if I'm 'as much of a bad boy as you are'." Ryo answered.

Bakura stared at Ryo for a long time, making Ryo grow concerned. Bakura leaned forward and pressed his forehead against Ryo's.

"I need you to make me a promise, Ryo." Bakura whispered.

"Okay." Ryo replied.

"Promise me you won't go to gym class anymore."

"Mn, but I need to. I'll fail if I don't."

"Ryo. Make me this promise, I'm begging you. _Don't _go to gym anymore."__

__Ryo knew his brother was serious. About what, he didn't know, but he felt that pushing for information was a bad idea and just assumed it had to do with the booklet. Ryo put his hands on either side of Bakura's face and gave him a bright smile._ _

__"I promise, Big Brother... Now, why don't you come sit with us, I bet you'll get along well with Yugi's friends." Ryo suggested._ _

__Bakura didn't say anything so Ryo grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to the group circle. Ryo sat back down in his spot and Bakura sat down next to him with little to no space between the two brothers._ _

__"Hey, Bakura!" Yugi greeted. "Are you skipping?"_ _

__"...Yeah." Bakura replied._ _

__To help break the ice, Jonouchi decided to add to the conversation. "Uh, me an' Honda skip a lot. We usually chill in the bathroom or, if we can escape campus, we go down the street and buy junk food."_ _

__"Dude, don't just tell anybody that!" Honda complained._ _

__"Next time you go get food you should totally bring me with you." Ryuji commented._ _

__"Oh yeah, definitely! I'll getcha whatever ya want!" Honda said with a nervous smile._ _

__"I hope you have a way of hiding this from Father. He said if you skip he'll ground you." Ryo told Bakura._ _

__"I left after attendance, it's fine." Bakura lied._ _

__"Hey, don't you feel bad about what Kaiba's done, okay? He's just an asshole that doesn't matter." Anzu said with a serious look on her face._ _

__"Oh, yeah! And we've all been gathering up those books and throwing away every one we see. There must not be that many left by now." Yugi piped in._ _

__"All that stuff in there, it's not true right? Well, all the bad stuff at least." Ryuji asked._ _

__Bakura shook his head. "It's all true. All of it but the very last thing."_ _

__"Mhm, yeah I assumed that before Yugi even told me. I can't see Atem dating anyone anyway." Ryuji replied._ _

__"Um, well, you know… He might, uh, be interested in having a family. So he might… want to find _someone_." Anzu objected._ _

__"'Kay but if he wanted a family he wouldn't date a guy." Ryuji stated._ _

__"They can adopt!" Anzu shouted._ _

__"I wasn't suggesting they _couldn't_." Ryuji said, rather annoyed at how loud Anzu got._ _

__"Who is the 'they' in this conversation?" Bakura questioned._ _

__"Omigosh, I'm sorry! I wasn't insinuating-"_ _

__"Awright, let's change the topic before someone gets offended. Like, what's it like to get arrested?" Jonouchi interrupted Anzu._ _

__Bakura glared at Jonouchi hard enough to scare the blond and Honda knocked him on the head._ _

__"Dumbass, you offended him anyway!" Honda scolded._ _

__"Nyeh! Ow, that hurt! Geez, sorry…" Jonouchi complained, rubbing his head._ _

__Anzu and Ryuji both laughed at Jonouchi's pain, making him respond with sarcastic laughter of his own. Bakura's time on the roof felt much more relaxed after that. He wasn't bothered by the booklets, or the insults, or Mr. Karita's bribe. He just enjoyed listening to the conversations Ryo, Yugi, and their friends were having. They joked around, argued, gossiped. It was peaceful. And the bright sun made it feel so much better than it would inside with the artificial lighting and weird stuffy air. Bakura would have felt so at peace having lunch on the roof every day with Ryo. It somewhat pained him having to know that as soon as he walked down those stairs he'd be forced back into the real world._ _

__The bell rang and Bakura immediately felt a suffocating pressure around him. Everyone packed up their stuff and headed for the rooftop door. Yugi and Jonouchi continued their conversation as they walked down the stairs while Bakura was silent in the back of the group. Ryo held his hand as they reached the bottom of the stairwell. They entered the hallway and everyone stood around for a second to say their goodbyes._ _

__"Yo, next time you skip come to the store with us. We'll make Honda pay!" Jonouchi said._ _

__"You can come but you better bring your own money. I'll only pay for Ryuji." Honda objected._ _

__"You should join us for lunch again. I could do something with that hair of yours for you." Ryuji offered with a wink that Bakura couldn't identify as a joke or not._ _

__"Keep your chin up about Kaiba. He's just let all his money go to his head." Anzu advised._ _

__"Don't forget about our plans tomorrow! Atem'll be sad if you don't show up." Yugi warned._ _

__"Try not to skip again, Big Brother. And don't worry, I'll keep my promise." Ryo reassured him._ _

__Everyone left to go to class and Bakura trudged down the hall to English class. He wasn't comfortable with leaving Ryo alone at school anymore. When he entered his classroom, the teacher was standing by her desk and holding a booklet. Bakura groaned when he realized what was about to happen._ _

__" **Step into the hall with me, Mr. Bakura**." The teacher ordered, speaking English._ _

__" **Uh, Why**?" Bakura grumbled in English._ _

__Bakura flinched and shoved a hand over his mouth. Being talked to in English made him subconsciously respond back in English. The look on the teacher's face told him she was infuriated._ _

__"So you _do_ speak English! I had my suspicions but I wasn't sure!" She held up the booklet. "But _this_ says you've been living in England your whole life! No wonder you caught on so quickly!"_ _

__"Uh- but- this totally isn't- you can't… Uuugghh!" Bakura stammered._ _

__" **Hallway! Now, Mr. Bakura**!" She demanded._ _

__" **Geez, 'kay! Stop calling me Mister, it's just Bakura**." Bakura stepped out of the classroom and into the hallway._ _

__The teacher followed behind him and closed the classroom door._ _

__" **Did you really think you could go all school year pretending not to know English in my class**?"_ _

__" **Well, it was working until today**!"_ _

__" **I'm getting you taken out of my class**."_ _

__" **Oh bloody hell**!"_ _

__" **Language**!"_ _

__" **Oh I'm sorry, would you like me to say it in Japanese**? Bloody hell!"_ _

__" **This is the last day you're spending in my class. I'll guarantee that you have a new schedule on Monday**."_ _

__" **Great, thanks! Can you get me outta gym too**?"_ _

__" **Stop it with that attitude and get to your desk. I don't want to hear a word out of you. Not in Japanese and not in English! And don't think I'll let you sleep during class just because it's your last day in here**!"_ _

__Bakura groaned and walked into the class. The way the whole class stared at him as he made his way to his desk only annoyed him further. He was silent during class, but didn't bother paying attention to anything. If he was really getting moved out on Monday then he didn't need to listen to the lesson. He wasted the whole time staring at his phone until the bell rang and he ran out of the classroom, trying to avoid eye contact with the teacher. Bakura was glad to be so close to the end of the day and couldn't wait to get home… where he knew Ryo would be safe._ _

__He got to his last class where he saw Atem sitting in his desk and staring intently at Miho's empty seat. Bakura sat down behind Atem and slouched in his chair. Atem turned around to face Bakura._ _

__"Are you… doing okay?" Atem asked, very worried about his friend._ _

__Bakura was silent until the bell to start class rang. "I don't… I don't know anymore, man. There's so many things I need to tell you."_ _

__"We can talk at the end of class, you just try to relax and not worry about anything." Atem advised, not realizing how hard that would be for Bakura to do._ _

__Bakura nodded and put his head on the desk. The teacher walked down the aisle and stopped next to Bakura, who glanced up at him, preparing for the worst._ _

__"Um, Bakura." He started saying in a very slow and enunciated voice. "I understand that there is an… educational disadvantage for you. I want you to know that you can have all the extra time you need to finish tests in my class."_ _

__Bakura and Atem stared at him in shock, along with about half of the class. Bakura stood up from his desk. He was done, he was tired, he wanted it all to be over, he wanted every problem that booklet caused him to disappear._ _

__"Oh I'm sorry, should I repeat myself? Do you _need_ extra _time_ for _tests_?" He reiterated._ _

__Bakura gave up, sighed, and dropped back into the chair. "...Yes…"_ _

__"Okay. Don't worry, we will get that taken care of." The teacher patted Bakura on the shoulder and walked back to his desk._ _

__Atem was silent as he stared at Bakura with a confused expression. Bakura kept his gaze down at his desk._ _

__"Uuumm… Do you actually need extra time?" Atem asked._ _

__Bakura groaned. "Yeah, I do. I hate it, but… yeah… I'm surprised he's the only one that's asked though."_ _

__"Well, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." Atem stated._ _

__Class finally started and went by just like any normal class. The teacher's question must have overshadowed the other things since no girls were staring at the two boys and neither of them could hear any whispering related to them. That, or throughout the day people finally stopped caring. Bakura realized he hadn't seen a single booklet since the one the English teacher had. Yugi and his friends must have done an amazing job getting rid of them all. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out to check it._ _

___'Texting to let you know that I'll be in the nurse's office for gym.'_ _ _

__It was Ryo. Bakura felt so much better knowing Ryo really did keep their promise._ _

__A few minutes ago, half way across campus, Yugi was waiting at the bottom of the stairs to the boy's locker room. He waved when he saw Ryo walking down the hall towards him._ _

__"Hey Ryo! I thought you were gonna go to the nurse." Yugi said._ _

__Ryo stopped in front of Yugi and nodded. "I just wanted to let the coach know first."_ _

__"I could tell him for you, or better yet, we both could! Then we can both go to the nurse and we could draw Kuribohs together!" Yugi suggested._ _

__Ryo chuckled. "And what would your excuse be?"_ _

__"We shared food at lunch and it made us both sick."_ _

__"That sounds possible, but highly unlikely."_ _

__"Hmm… Yeah, you're right. And my mom would be mad to know I went to the nurse for something so small. Okay, you just go and I'll tell the coach the second I see him!"_ _

__"Alright. Thank you, Yugi."_ _

__"No problem!"_ _

__The two smiled and waved at each other as Yugi went up the stairs to the locker room and Ryo turned around to leave. He didn't walk very far when he rounded a corner and came face to face with Mr. Karita, his gym coach._ _

__"Ryo Bakura, don't I have you in my class this period?" Mr. Karita asked._ _

__Ryo immediately went into 'pretending to be sick' mode and put an arm over his stomach._ _

__"U-um yes. I'm sorry, but I'm not feeling well. I think my lunch upset my stomach… I don't believe I'll be able to make it to gym." Ryo lied._ _

__"That's a darn shame, Ryo. Why don't I escort you to the nurse?" Mr. Karita offered._ _

__"Uh… hmm... Okay, thank you." Ryo said with a smile._ _

__As he and Mr. Karita walked down the hall, Ryo pulled out his phone._ _

__"Is it okay that I text my brother? I don't want him to worry about me." Ryo asked._ _

__Mr. Karita put on a fake smile. "Sure, go ahead."_ _

__Ryo texted Bakura and, satisfied with his message, put his phone back in his pocket._ _

__They walked for another minute in silence as they passed a supply closet. Ryo kept walking until the collar of his uniform almost choked him. He looked back to see Mr. Karita with a hand holding the back of Ryo's uniform collar._ _

__"M-Mr. Karita…?" Ryo muttered._ _

__Mr. Karita opened the supply closet and dragged Ryo back by his collar. Ryo tried to act against the pulling but he was nowhere near strong enough to escape the gym teacher. In a last ditch effort to escape, Ryo let his bag slip off his shoulder and fall to the ground. He unbuttoned his uniform jacket and suddenly stumbled forward. The jacket slipped off and Mr. Karita threw it to the ground._ _

__"Don't make this any harder than it has to be. This is for your big brother's sake after all." Mr. Karita warned._ _

__Ryo's eyes widened. "Big… Brother?"_ _

__Ryo realized this had to do with the booklet. He didn't know how or why, but it involved the booklet nonetheless. Ryo took a step to start running, but an arm wrapped around his waist, stopping him in his tracks. Mr. Karita picked him up with ease and Ryo started kicking and trying to push himself free._ _

__"Big Brother! Yugi! Ate-" Mr. Karita shoved a hand over Ryo's mouth to keep him quiet._ _

__Mr. Karita roughly threw Ryo into the supply closet. When Ryo landed in the closet he hit the side of head against the wall, knocking him out. Mr. Karita grabbed Ryo's bag and jacket and tossed them in the closet with Ryo. He shut the door and used a key from his pocket to lock it. He simply walked away and back towards the gym to start his class._ _

__Back in Bakura and Atem's class, a folded piece of paper went from one hand to another._ _

__Atem glanced up to make sure the teacher didn't see anything and unfolded the paper._ _

___'I'm not going to anyone with this. I'll handle it myself and stab the pervert if I have to.'_ _ _

__Atem wrote his reply below._ _

___'You can't fight a teacher. Tell someone. Tell the principal. Tell your parents. Anybody. You can't let him get away with such a disgusting thing.'_ _ _

__Atem folded the paper back up and slipped it behind him. Bakura took the paper and unfolded it, reading the response._ _

___'I'm telling you aren't I? I'm not getting any adults involved and I'm not letting him win.'_ _ _

__Bakura folded it and passed it back to Atem._ _

___'So you want me to help. You're not willing to say it but you really do trust me with a lot. We will deal with this. Nothing will happen to Ryo and you won't get expelled.'_ _ _

__Atem handed the paper to Bakura, who read the response then ripped up the paper, surprising Atem._ _

__Bakura threw his hand in the air. "Teacher! I need to use the potty!"_ _

__The teacher, and the whole class, turned to Bakura. "Oh, okay. Go ahead."_ _

__"I need to take my stuff too and I don't remember where it is so I need Atem to come with me." Bakura said._ _

__"Um… Okay then."_ _

__Bakura got up, grabbed Atem by the wrist, and walked out of the class with him, not caring that everyone stared at them weirdly. When the got into the hallway Atem yanked his hand back._ _

__"Why in the world did you just embarrass yourself, and me, like that!?" Atem questioned._ _

__"If that bastard is gonna talk to me like I'm an idiot then I'm gonna talk to him like _he's_ an idiot! Besides, I got the feeling that I could get away with anything around him. C'mon." Bakura explained and walked down the hall._ _

__"Um, I don't think ADHD makes you an idiot." Atem stated as he followed behind Bakura._ _

__"That's my point, but I might as well use it to my advantage." Bakura said._ _

__They walked into the nearest restroom and Bakura checked the stalls to make sure they were alone._ _

__"Did I help you find the potty?" Atem mocked._ _

__Bakura groaned. "Shut up, I had to say something to get us alone. It just wasn't a conversation to be having on a piece of paper."_ _

__Atem sighed. "Okay, why don't we go over this again. Start from the beginning."_ _

__"I went to gym class, but Karita wouldn't allow me in… for… 'obvious' reasons. He said he would take that bloody book to the school board if I didn't let him cop a feel on Ryo twice a week and gave me 'til Monday to make up my mind." Bakura explained._ _

__"And you don't want to tell someone? You can't just go stab him after school or something! Get him fired!"_ _

__"But the book-"_ _

__"Screw the book! I know you're not considering letting anything happen to Ryo, but I think taking a third option is not a smart idea here. You don't need to fight everyone you meet to the death! Do whatever it takes to win, but do the easiest way first. Get your hands dirty as a last resort."_ _

__Bakura was silent and stared at Atem before turning around and looking to the ground. "...Ryo's in the nurse's office… I wanna go see him."_ _

__"We can go do that. Class is over in about five minutes anyway."_ _

__Atem and Bakura stepped out of the restroom and back into the hallway._ _

__"I don't know where the nurse's office is. I actually need your help on this one." Bakura muttered._ _

__Atem sighed. "Follow me."_ _

__They silently walked through the halls to where the nurse was located and Atem opened the office door, walking in first. Bakura walked in after him and looked around for Ryo, but didn't see him anywhere. The bell rang and the nurse looked up at the boys._ _

__"Yes?" She asked._ _

__"Um, my brother told me he'd be in here. I came to pick him up." Bakura answered._ _

__"Nobody's been in here for the last two periods." The nurse said._ _

__Bakura and Atem glanced at each other. It wasn't like Ryo to lie about something so simple as going to the nurse. Maybe he said it so Bakura wouldn't worry while he went to gym anyway. But if he did go to gym… he might be in danger. Bakura suddenly ran out of the office and left Atem confused. He didn't know what to do, so he ran after his friend._ _

__"Bakura, wait!" Atem shouted, trying to catch up with him._ _

__"Hi Bakura!" Yugi said as Bakura ran past him in the hallway._ _

__Bakura abruptly stopped, almost bumping into someone, and turned around. He grabbed Yugi by the shoulders and shook him._ _

__"Yugi, thank goodness! Where's Ryo!?" Bakura shouted._ _

__Atem caught up to Bakura and pulled his friend's hands off Yugi, who was very confused and very dizzy._ _

__"Um… Ryo…? He went to the nurse before gym started. Haven't seen him since." Yugi answered._ _

__"He never went to the nurse!" Bakura argued._ _

__"Huh? But… I saw him leave." Yugi mumbled._ _

__"Stop, stop, stop." Atem grabbed Bakura and made the taller face him. "Calm down. You'll never make a smart decision if you run around screaming like this. Before you do anything, try texting him."_ _

__Bakura took a deep breath, then another, then another. He was trying to calm himself, but not knowing where Ryo was at was practically killing him. Once he was as calm as he could get, Bakura pulled out his phone. He didn't want to deal with waiting, so he called Ryo instead. It rang for quite a while and Bakura kept hoping Ryo would pick up._ _

___"Your call cannot be taken right now. Please leave a message after the tone."_ _ _

__"Damn it!" Bakura hung up and tried calling again._ _

___"Your call cannot be ta-"_ _ _

__Bakura hung up and called again._ _

__"Is Ryo missing?" Yugi asked, with a concerned expression._ _

__"I want to say no, Yugi… But I don't know anymore." Atem answered, also becoming more nervous with each failed call._ _

__The hallways started growing empty as most of the students left campus, but Bakura, Atem, and Yugi stayed put in the hall._ _

___"Your call-"_ _ _

__"Pick uuupp!" Bakura practically screamed._ _

__Atem finally snatched Bakura's phone from his hand. "Okay, he's not answering. We know that. Where do you think he'd be?"_ _

__Bakura shoved his hands in his hair and it dawned on him. "The gym."_ _

__Across campus Mr. Karita walked out of the boy's locker room and down the stairs. He went around the corner and down the hall to the supply closet. He looked around thoroughly to make sure no stragglers were in the halls then pulled out a key and unlocked the supply closet. He opened the door to find Ryo, still lying there, and his eyes half closed. He seemed unaware that the door was opened._ _

__"...B-Bro...ther…" Ryo mumbled._ _

__Karita checked the halls one more time before picking Ryo up from the floor, carrying the boy over his shoulder. He grabbed the boy's jacket and bag and shut the closet door with his foot. Karita made his way into the gym and started to walk across the floor to his office._ _

__Ryo began coming to his senses and tried to figure out where he was, but his vision was too blurry. All he could tell was that he was moving, but he wasn't doing it on his own. He started recalling the last thing he could remember._ _

___"Don't make this any harder than it has to be. This is for your big brother's sake after all."_ _ _

__Ryo finally realized what was happening and regained his senses. He let out a scream as loud and high-pitched as his throat would let him, startling Karita._ _

__"H-hey! Kid, shut up! Stop it!" Karita shouted._ _

__Ryo flailed his arms and legs, trying to free himself._ _

__"I said shut it!" Karita demanded._ _

__"Big Brooootheeeer!" Ryo screeched._ _

__A basketball pelted Karita in the head, making him stumble and drop Ryo on the floor along with his jacket and bag. Ryo quickly got to his feet and ran as fast as he could to the gym entrance. Karita turned around to see Bakura and Atem, who was holding a second basketball._ _

__"Ryo!" Bakura called out as Ryo ran into his arms._ _

__Bakura held him in such a tight hug that it started to hurt Ryo's ribs, but Ryo couldn't bring himself to complain. He was just happy to be rescued by his big brother. Bakura looked up at Mr. Karita._ _

__"You _bastard_! You said you'd give me 'til Monday!" Bakura yelled at him._ _

__"Either I lied, or I never specified I wouldn't do this. Pick whichever excuse you prefer." Karita responded._ _

__Bakura glared at the teacher and moved Ryo to side. Atem dropped the basketball at Bakura's feet, who kicked it and hit Karita in the side of the face._ _

__"Argh!" Karita fell backwards and onto the ground._ _

__"How are you so good at that?" Atem questioned._ _

__"I was forced to play football during prep school." Bakura answered._ _

__Mr. Karita rubbed his head and started to stand up. When he got to his feet he ran at the three teens._ _

__"Okaaay, Bakura! What now!?" Atem asked._ _

__"Uuuuhh… I don't know! I didn't think of anything else!" Bakura frantically answered._ _

__"Scatter!" Ryo shouted._ _

__Atem ran one way while Ryo and Bakura ran the other way. Karita hesitated on who to follow, but chose the brothers. The three boys started to run across the gym to the other side._ _

__"Yugi! Hurry up!" Atem shouted, not sure if Yugi could even hear him._ _

__Karita started gaining on the brothers._ _

__"Go up the bleachers, Ryo!" Bakura ordered._ _

__Ryo nodded and jumped up the bleachers, climbing them like stairs. Bakura hoped Mr. Karita would follow him, being an easier target to catch, but Bakura was wrong. Karita turned and started climbing the bleachers after Ryo._ _

__Ryo looked behind his shoulder and yelped. "W-why!? What do you want with me!?"_ _

__"Hehehe! Because you're so innocent, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get my hands on you!" Karita replied._ _

__Ryo reached the top of the bleachers and turned around, unsure where to go. "I-innocent!? Me? N-no way! I'm not… i-innocent!"_ _

__Bakura and Atem met on the other side of the gym where the door to the coaches' offices were._ _

__"You go stop him, I'll wait for Yugi!" Atem advised, trying to catch his breath._ _

__On the bleachers Karita reached Ryo and grabbed his arm._ _

__"I'm not innocent!" Ryo proclaimed, tugging his arm back. "I-I help my brothers steal things by distracting store employees! I play with Ouija boards when I'm alone even though that's the most important rule!"_ _

__Karita picked Ryo up and slung the boy over his shoulder._ _

__"I really like gore! I watched a snuff film with Big Brother once and asked to watch another one! I help feed Aki's snake just to watch it eat things alive!" Ryo started kicking and hitting Mr. Karita. "I made a satanic circle in the backyard with my brothers! I think Alien turns me on! Maybe! I'm not sure! Still trying to figure that one out!"_ _

__"Ryo! Stop confessing things!" Bakura shouted as he climbed the bleachers and threw himself on top of Mr. Karita._ _

__"G-get off!" Karita tried to hold onto Ryo and pull Bakura off of him by the jacket collar._ _

__Karita made it to the bottom of the bleachers but lost his footing on the last row and slipped, falling forward to the ground. Bakura crawled away and grabbed Ryo, who was lying on top of the coach. The door to the coaches' office burst open and Yugi ran into the gym. He held up a copy of the booklet, the last copy in fact._ _

__"Hey! Mr. Karita, look what I got!" Yugi shouted._ _

__Ryo and Bakura stood up and ran towards the other pair of brothers. Karita had trouble, but eventually got to his feet and froze when he saw Yugi holding the booklet. Atem pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit it, holding it dangerously close to the booklet._ _

__"I've had my friends help to find and throw away every single one of these books, so trust me when I say that this is the last copy left! You might wanna think about your next move!" Yugi proclaimed._ _

__"Oh c'mon! If you burn that thing, I can just blame you damn brats for arson! In fact, I can make up whatever I want and as a teacher, everyone will believe me no matter what you say!" Karita said._ _

__Bakura glared at him and gripped Ryo's hand. "He's bluffing. Burn it."_ _

__"With great pleasure." Atem smirked as he let the fire touch the booklet and Yugi immediately threw it to the ground._ _

__"Noooo!" Karita ran towards the teens and got on his knees, trying to blow out the fire._ _

__Bakura pulled his switchblade out of his pocket and raised it, but Atem put an arm out to stop Bakura._ _

__"Really!? After what he tried to do to Ryo, you're not gonna let me stab him?" Bakura complained._ _

__"Yes. Besides, I have a better idea." Atem responded._ _

__"Phfft… And what would that be?" Bakura questioned._ _

__Atem stepped forward and placed a hand on Karita's forehead. Ryo and Bakura went wide-eyed and stepped back when Atem's forehead started to glow._ _

__"Mind crush!" Atem said as… something that neither of the brothers could describe happened and Mr. Karita fell backwards._ _

__The two stared in shock as they waited for Karita to move, but nothing happened. Bakura was first to speak up._ _

__"What the fuck man!? I can't bloody stab him, but you can fucking _kill_ him with psychic _fucking_ powers!?" Bakura shouted._ _

__"He's not dead!" Atem argued. "I just wiped his memory of today. By Monday he should be back to normal and not remember a thing. It'll be like today never happened for him."_ _

__"Oh! That's great! He's not dead, you just _wiped his fucking memory_!" Bakura screamed._ _

__"Stop yelling Bakura!"_ _

__"How am I not supposed to yell in this situation!? You casually wiped a guy's memories like it was nothing! What the fuck else can you do!?"_ _

__"Listen, I don't understand it either. I've only known I can do that for about a year now, but explaining it isn't important right now. If someone catches us here there'll be something entirely different to explain. And I don't think any of us want to explain this."_ _

__"He's right, Big Brother. I-I just really want to go home now…" Ryo said._ _

__Bakura turned to Ryo, who looked like he was ready to cry. He must have been able to hold himself together thanks an adrenaline rush and was finally coming down from it. Bakura pulled Ryo into a hug and Ryo gripped at Bakura's hair as he started crying. Yugi ran over to put a hand on Ryo's back in an attempt to help comfort his friend._ _

__"H-hey, Ryo… If you need a day to yourself then we can cancel tomorrow's plans. It's no big deal." Yugi suggested._ _

__Ryo shook his head. "I-It's o-okaaay…"_ _

__Ryo burst into tears that he was trying to hold back. Bakura could feel a stain forming on his jacket where Ryo's face was pressed against it. Listening to his little brother cry pissed him off to no end. Nobody was allowed to hurt Ryo like that and even though they saved him, the fact that Ryo was still affected negatively by the event made Bakura hungry for revenge. Not just on Mr. Karita, but on Kaiba as well. Everything that transpired throughout the day wouldn't have happened if Kaiba didn't make that booklet… and Ryo wouldn't be crying._ _

__"Are we just gonna let him get away with this?" Bakura questioned._ _

__"What are you talking about? He's not getting away with it. We stopped him. He's not going to remember this. That is his punishment." Atem explained._ _

__"I was hoping more along the lines of an eye for an eye. Ryo's crying his damn eyes out here. This doesn't really feel like equal retribution." Bakura argued._ _

__"Well I'm not going to let you stab him if that's what you're getting at." Atem stated._ _

__Bakura scowled at Atem and pulled Ryo closer. Atem simply ignored him and stared at the small flaming booklet in the ground. He felt mesmerized by the flames so he resorted to stepping on it and putting out the fire._ _

__"We need to go. We're probably the only students left on campus. I know Mom will be mad about us getting home late, Yugi." He said._ _

__"Aaaw… We're so gonna get an ear fuuuull!" Yugi groaned._ _

__Yugi ran off across the gym and grabbed Ryo's jacket and bag, bringing it all the way back to his friend. He held them out for Bakura to take. Bakura grabbed the jacket and put it on Ryo, even buttoning it up for him. He held onto Ryo's bag for him so he wouldn't have to carry it himself._ _

__"Sooo… Shouldn't we do something about Mr. Karita?" Yugi wondered._ _

__"Leaving him there is fine." Atem responded and started to walk out of the gym._ _

__Yugi followed after him and Bakura walked with an arm around Ryo's waist, who was trying to calm himself down. Behind the door to the gym Mokuba ran off, satisfied with everything he saw._ _

__As Bakura left the gym with Ryo it dawned on him. Compared to how much Atem learned about him during the events of the day, Bakura barely knew a thing about Atem. And now that he knew Atem could do some crazy psychic thing he certainly had a lot of questions. It would be best to wait and ask them tomorrow when everything had settled down. Besides, they were friends. Bakura could trust Atem and Atem could trust Bakura. He would get his answers in full when Atem was ready to tell him, but right now getting Ryo home was his top priority._ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...imsosorryryo
> 
> Um, so... yeah. You know, I just realized a lot of this probably doesn't make sense to people that haven't read the manga... Sorry if you have no clue who Mr. Karita and Nezumi are. Just know that any self-respecting Ryo Bakura fangirl should hate Mr. Karita! (Please don't take that advice seriously! He was an asshole in that one chapter but The Spirit of the Ring did go a tad too far with him...) Also Nezumi is really cute so I just wanted to throw him in there. If I knew how to I would've plopped Hanasaki and Imouri somewhere too, maybe they'll show up down the road, idk... I kinda like the idea of the three of them being their own group.
> 
> Anyway, thanks for the comments so far, they're really nice to get~


	4. Destiny's Bag of Sharing (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've had to make an executive decision here that I view as the lesser of two evils. Keep in mind this info only applies to people that are reading as chapters get posted, I start summer school on Tuesday and I desperately wanted to post chapter four before Tuesday so summer school wouldn't become a delaying factor, but it's early Monday morning and I realize now that's an impossible feat. So my options were a) keep everyone waiting longer than they would have to for the full chapter, or b) post the first half so the summer school delay wouldn't be an immediate problem. I chose option b. Don't worry though, I've got quite a bit of part two already written and I wrote a stopping point to end part one at in the event I'd have to go with option b. Plus chapter four was getting waaaay super long anyway so maybe this for the best. Anyway, enjoy part 1!

Ryo woke up and opened his eyes. He couldn't see anything with the lights out, but felt cold so he pulled the blanket over his head. On the other side of the bed part of the blanket was pulled off of Bakura who rolled around and yanked the blanket back. Ryo pulled it again, but Bakura continued to pull as well, causing the two to fight for it.

"Stoooop." Akefia grumbled as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. "It's my blanket, so let go before I take it."

Ryo gave up on the blanket and the force Bakura was using to pull it made him roll off the bed and onto the floor, getting himself wrapped up in the blanket. Ryo grabbed one of Akefia's pillows instead and clung onto it. Bakura groaned and covered his head with the blanket.

"You good down there, Baku?" Akefia asked, not sounding like he actually cared.

"Your carpet is comfortable. Why'd you get the room with the softest carpet?" Bakura mumbled from the floor.

Akefia didn't bother responding and laid back down to cuddle with Ryo. The room was silent once again until something started ringing. Bakura reached a hand out from underneath the blanket and patted around on the floor. His hand found a phone and pulled it under the blanket to answer it.

"Hello?" Bakura answered.

_"Morning Ryo!"_

"Not Ryo." Bakura replied.

_"Not Ryo?"_

"Not Ryo."

_"...Bakura?"_

"Bakura."

_"Oh, ha. You two sound the same so I couldn't tell."_

"Who is this?"

_"Yugi!"_

"Oh… Hey. Whaddup."

_"I was just calling to ask if you two were still coming over today."_

"Yeah."

_"Okay, that good! Hey, you should bring Duel Monsters cards with you. Ryo said you two play."_

"'Kay."

_"Okay. See ya soon!"_

"Yep."

Bakura hung up and held the phone away from his face to get a look at the case. He knew it was Ryo's phone thanks to the zombie case and turned it around to see the Xenomorph wallpaper on the screen.

"Did someone call?" Ryo asked, lifting his head off of the bed.

"Yeah, Yugi. Said to bring our Duel Monsters decks." Bakura replied.

Ryo put his head back down and finally the room was quiet once more. Unfortunately, it didn't last long since the bedroom door opened. Their father walked in and flipped the light switch, making his sons groan at the sudden bright light.

"C'mon… really?" Akefia complained.

"Yes, really. Get the blanket off the floor. And where is-" Ryutaro picked the blanket up from the floor and revealed Bakura, who was laying there. "Seriously!? What are you doing!? Get off the floor!"

"But it's comfy." Bakura objected.

Ryutaro sighed. "Just… just get up. Your mother has breakfast ready so be quick about it."

He turned and walked out of the room, leaving the door open so they'd have to get up. Ryo was the first to sit up. He scooted to the edge of Akefia's bed and slid off. Bakura then got to his feet, handing Ryo his phone and finding his own phone on the floor near his feet.

Bakura lightly hit Akefia in the leg. "Dude, get up. Food."

"In a minute, geez." Akefia grumbled.

"I'm going to go change before I eat." Ryo said as he walked out of the room and to his own bedroom.

Akefia immediately shot up from the bed and stumbled over to the door, shutting it so he and Bakura would be alone.

"Is he doin' okay?" The eldest asked.

Bakura sighed and sat on the edge of the bed. "I don't know. You know how he is, always putting on a fake smile and saying everything's okay."

"Man, if you told me I would've come in and helped. He's my little brother too, ya know."

"Listen, it's whatever now. It came and went and it's over. I don't want him thinking about it anymore than he already has." Bakura stood up and walked to the door. "And so help me, if you say a thing to Mother and Father-"

"I know, I know. You'll make my face symmetrical. You've said it before." Akefia finished for Bakura.

"Exactly! I'm gonna go change too." And with that Bakura left Akefia's room.

Bakura walked past his parents in the kitchen, past the living room, and barged into his and Ryo's room. Ryo practically jumped when he saw Bakura come in.

"Oh relax, you haven't even started changing." Bakura said as he grabbed the teal button up shirt from Ryo's bed.

"Hey, I was going to wear that." Ryo complained.

"Yeah, well I wanna wear it too."

Ryo didn't put up a fight about it and instead went to his dresser to pull out a long sleeved dark blue shirt. He grabbed other clothes from his dresser while Bakura rummaged through a box of his unpacked clothes for something to wear. The two changed and it dawned on Bakura that he and Ryo were wearing the same blue and white striped shirt and gray pants.

"Ryo, we can not keep dressing alike anymore." Bakura stated.

"Hm?" Ryo looked over to notice Bakura's outfit. "Oh. Well, we already look identical so I don't see a problem with it. Besides, Yugi and Atem style their hair the same. I don't think they'll care that we're dressed alike."

Bakura groaned and walked over to his nightstand. He didn't like that Ryo was probably right. He put his phone in his pocket and picked up his switchblade to put it in the same pocket. He spotted his and Ryo's duel decks and grabbed the one he was sure was his, putting it in his other pocket.

"Catch." Bakura tossed the other deck at Ryo.

Ryo flinched and almost unsuccessfully caught it, but grabbed it just in time. He put the deck in his bag and picked up his DS and game case to put them in the bag as well. Ryo turned back around to see Bakura staring at him with a serious expression.

"Are you okay?" Bakura asked.

Ryo smiled and nodded at his brother. "I'm okay."

Bakura wasn't convinced and continued to stare at Ryo.

"Really, I'm okay." Ryo walked up to Bakura and tugged on his wrist. "Let's go eat now."

Ryo and Bakura left their room and went to the kitchen to sit down at the table. Their mother made a huge stack of pancakes like she did every weekend. Akefia was already at the table and eating. He just finished one pancake and started making quick work on a second one. The two sat down at the table with their family and started eating.

"So when are you two going to head over there?" Charise asked.

"We're gonna go after we eat." Bakura answered.

" _You_ can drive them." Ryutaro said, looking at Akefia.

"Whaa?! So not fair, you don't even work today. Why should I?" Akefia complained.

"Because you need to get out as often as possible. If you're not laying on the couch you're laying in your bed and half your things aren't even unpacked. You can't keep relying on your mother and I for everything." His stepfather responded.

Akefia groaned and stuffed his mouth with more food.

"Well I hope you boys have fun with your friends. Oh, you've never been to a friend's house! I'm just so excited for you two! They should definitely come over sometime!" Charise suggested.

Bakura felt embarrassed at the thought of Atem and Yugi coming over for a visit. How embarrassing their parents would be and their mother would probably insist on pulling out the accursed baby pictures. Then again, it would probably be nice anyway considering none of the three of them had ever had a friend over before.

The family finished eating and Charise gathered up the plates to wash them. Akefia grabbed his jacket and car keys from his room while Ryo went to his room to grab his bag. When he came Bakura noticed Ryo's hair was much more flat and brushed out. He must have brushed his hair. Bakura shoved his hands in his own hair and worked through any knots he felt before shaking his head to give it the usual 'poofy' look. The boys said their goodbyes to their parents and left the apartment to walk down the hall.

"Alright, where am I goin'?" Akefia asked.

"It's called Kame Game. Yugi gave me directions." Ryo said as he pulled out his phone from his pocket.

The three brothers got on the elevator and when they got off on the first floor they found the same old woman waiting to get on. She looked surprised to see the brothers, but both parties opted to ignore the other the best they could. They made their way out of the apartment building and down the street to Akefia's car.

"Seatbelts." Ryo advised as he got in the car.

"No." Akefia and Bakura replied, making Ryo pout at them.

As Akefia drove them Ryo gave him directions and Bakura put his window down to prop his legs up in the car. It occurred to Bakura that they must live quite a ways away from Atem and Yugi since they passed by the school on the way there. Seeing school on a Sunday was almost as bad as going to school on a Saturday. It didn't take long after that for them to arrive at their destination.

Akefia stopped in front of the shop and his brothers got out. Kame Game was a small two story building on the corner of the street. There was a little sign out front with a turtle on it. Despite that being somewhat odd, it did make sense considering the name of the place.

"What time do I need to come get you guys?" He asked them.

"We'll text you." Bakura responded as he walked towards the entrance.

Ryo waved to his eldest brother as he drove off then followed behind Bakura to enter the shop. The inside was surprisingly small compared to the outside size of the building. The two assumed the rest of the building made up the house. The display cases in the shop contained lots of old, non-electronic games. It seemed more like a nostalgia type of game store that one would go to in order to find collector's items. Bakura spotted plenty of Duel Monsters cards though, both single cards and card packs. Behind the counter was a short old man with gray hair. His bangs looked a lot like Atem and Yugi's bangs. Bakura realized he must be their grandfather. He seemed distracted by something happening behind the counter and Yugi popped up, putting a game case on the counter.

"Omigosh!" Yugi exclaimed when he spotted the brothers. "Ryo! Bakura! You're here!"

Yugi ran around the counter and right to Ryo to give him a hug. It slightly startled Ryo, who wasn't expecting it and was still iffy about physical contact due to yesterday's events. He nonetheless quickly warmed up to it and hugged Yugi back.

"I'll go get Atem!" Yugi said as he pulled away and left the shop through the door behind the counter.

"Hohoho. That Yugi, always in a hurry wherever he goes." Yugi's grandfather turned to his guests. "Nice to meet you boys."

"Nice to meet you as well, Sir. You're Yugi and Atem's grandfather, right?" Ryo replied.

"Yep, Sugoroku Muto. You boys can call me Grandpa if ya like." Sugoroku held a hand out and Ryo shook it. Bakura was reluctant to do so, but also shook hands with him.

"Now lemme guess… You're Ryo-" He pointed to the shorter one, "-and you're Bakura." then to the taller.

Ryo nodded. "Yes, Sir. That's us."

The back door burst open and Yugi came out with Atem right behind. The two had on the exact same clothes. A black sleeveless shirt with black pants and shoes. They both wore the same studded belt and collar like choker. The only difference between them was that Atem had several silver bracelets around his wrists.

"See, I told you dressing alike didn't matter." Ryo whispered.

Bakura groaned in response.

"Hey Bakura!" Atem greeted with a smile and a wave.

"Yo." Bakura replied.

"Grandpa! We're gonna be in our room!" Yugi said as he grabbed Ryo by the arm. "C'mon, Ryo!"

Ryo flinched and Yugi tugged him through the door.

"W-woah! Y-Yugi!" They heard Ryo whine.

"Hohoho. You boys have fun now." Sugoroku said.

"Will do, Grandpa." Atem replied and motioned for Bakura to follow him.

The two went into the back and, despite already assuming it was there, Bakura was surprised to see a normal looking house behind the shop. There was a woman sitting on the couch in the living room. Bakura couldn't see her face, but assumed it was Atem and Yugi's mother. Or an older sister he didn't know about, he wasn't quite sure.

"So have you and Ryo been alright since yesterday?" Atem asked.

"Hm? Uh… I'm fine. Don't know about Ryo though. He insists he's okay, but he lies about that so often that I don't know what to believe." Bakura answered.

"Atem!" The woman in the living room called.

"Yes, Mom?" He replied.

"Do not make a mess in there! And if you do anyway you better clean it up so I don't find out!"

"Yes, Mom."

"And they can't stay for dinner!"

"Yes, Mom."

The two continued through the house and up the stairs.

"Geez, is she always like that?" Bakura whispered.

"Like what?" Atem looked at Bakura with a curious expression. "Oh, is your mom like the opposite or something?"

"Uh, yeah! Like, polar opposite. She sounds meaner than my father. Wait, are all Japanese parents strict?"

"She's half Egyptian actually, but from what I know about the rest world, yes."

"...That makes so much sense."

Atem chuckled and opened the door to his and Yugi's room. Ryo looked a bit nervous sitting on the edge of Yugi's bed while Yugi was digging through his side of the closet, pulling out every single game he had stuffed in it. Atem was a little disappointed that it only took a few minutes for the floor to become a mess.

"-and this thing here is kinda like a Tamagotchi only it's way cooler and they automatically die after like a month!" Yugi explained as he held up a keychain with a tiny game attached.

"I had a Tamagotchi once." Ryo glanced to Bakura. "Big Brother broke it though."

Bakura scoffed. "Oh please, I stepped on it on accident. You left it on the floor."

Bakura took a seat at the desk near the bed and Yugi went back to sifting through the closet. Atem sat on his own bed and picked up his phone from the desk. He was surprised to see he had a missed call.

"Anzu called me a few minutes ago. Weird. She's not the type to call." Atem noted.

"Anzu called you!?" Yugi repeated, sticking his head out of the closet for a second. "Call her back!"

"No, Yugi. We have company, if it was important she would call again. Or call you, one or the other." Atem rejected.

Yugi groaned and continued pulling games out of the closet. Bakura and Ryo started wondering how so many things could fit in one closet.

"Hey, what's this?" Yugi wondered as he picked up a small wooden box in the closet and opened it. "Why is there a box of lighters in here?"

Atem flinched and got up to snatch the box from Yugi, frantically shoving it back in the closet. "Itsnothingignoreit!"

He pulled Yugi away from the closet and closed it. "Let's please stop messing with the closet now!"

Atem noticed a smug expression on Bakura's face.

"Lighters, huh? Explains why you 'just so happened' to have a lighter on you yesterday." He said.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Atem protested.

"Uh-huh. Sure."

"Alriiiight! Ryo, up to play some Pokémon?" Yugi asked, trying to change the subject.

"Oh, of course." Ryo grabbed his bag and pulled out his DS.

"While they do that, what do you wanna do?" Bakura asked Atem.

Atem thought for a moment to get an idea, but before he could answer his phone started ringing. He quickly went to pick it up, but didn't recognize the number.

"Is it Anzu?!" Yugi asked.

"No, I don't know who it is." Atem responded.

"Answer it anyway. Ya never know, it could be important." Bakura stated.

Atem did answer it and held the phone up to his ear.

"Hello?"

_"Atem, I have Yugi's little friends. If you want them back then come to Kaiba Land. We're having a rematch."_

The other person then abruptly hung up on Atem.

"That was quick, wrong number?" Yugi wondered.

"Um, no. No. It was Kaiba, I recognized his voice." Atem said.

"Tch. What'd that bitch want?" Bakura asked.

"...He… he says he has the others and he wants me to come to Kaiba Land for a rematch." He explained.

Yugi gasped while Ryo looked confused and Bakura started laughing.

"H-hahahaha! Kaiba Land! Seriously!? H-hahaha! What the bloody hell is that!? A… H-haha… A 'Kaiba themed amusement park'!? H-hahaha! That's the worst fake threat I've ever heard! He's not even trying! H-hahahaha!" Bakura laughed so hard he almost fell out of the chair.

"Yes, Bakura, it is. He's _that_ rich." Atem stated.

"We're actually banned from it 'cause he doesn't like us." Yugi added.

Bakura froze and stopped laughing. "...Y-you're kidding… right?"

Atem stepped over to the desk and opened up the window. "Come look out here. You too, Ryo."

Bakura and Ryo both got up and stood in front of the window. Atem pointed to a large skyscraper across town.

"See that? That's Kaiba Land." Atem said.

"Ohh, I've been wondering what that building was since we moved here." Ryo stated.

Bakura glared at the towering building in the distance and slammed his hands on the desk, shocking the other three in the room.

"Alright! Let's burn it down!" Bakura announced.

Atem flinched. "No, Bakura! We're not burning down Kaiba Land! He just wants a rematch with me. Besides, he has our friends in there."

Bakura turned to Atem and put his hands on his friend's shoulders. He had a sly -or maybe mischievous- grin on his face. It came off as being a little more on the creepy side, however.

"C'mooon, you know you want to. The thought of the building burning, crumbling, ashes raining down from the sky! The screams of terror as people run for their lives!" Bakura tempted him.

Atem actually looked mesmerized just imagining the scenario. The flames growing larger as more of the building became engulfed by the fire, the heat and light it would produce, the attention it would bring. Atem was snapped out if his fantasy by Ryo.

"You'll have to excuse him, he's a bad influence." Ryo said as he pulled Bakura's hands off of Atem.

Bakura groaned at Ryo.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and Yugi went to open it, letting his grandfather in the room.

"Grandpa? What's up?" Yugi asked.

"Hmm, there's a limo parked in front of the store and someone came in to tell me they were here to pick you boys up." Sugoroku answered.

"What?" Bakura turned around and leaned over the desk to look out the window, seeing a limo below him. "No way, there really is!"

Yugi gasped. "Maybe Kaiba arranged for a limo to take us to Kaiba Land!"

"That sounds too kind for Kaiba, but I can't think of any other reason." Atem said.

"So! Let's go! And when we get there we can kick Kaiba's ass!" Bakura shouted.

"We are not going to fight him! I will have a rematch duel with him, win in about five minutes, and we all walk out together and never talk about Kaiba again. That is all. No kicking his ass, no burning the building down, and before you ask, _no stabbing_." Atem protested.

"You're no fun…" Bakura grumbled.

"No matter what we do we still need to go. You said he has the others which means we need to rescue them, right? That's our motivation for going." Ryo said.

"Ryo's right! No more talking, let's take action!" Yugi grabbed Ryo by the hand and pulled him out of the room, causing Ryo to yelp.

"Friend rescue! Friend rescue! Friend rescue! Friend rescue!" They heard Yugi chant.

Atem sighed and quickly made his way out of the bedroom with Bakura behind him.

"You boys have fun kicking ass." Sugoroku advised.

"Will do, Grandpa." Atem reluctantly replied.

The two caught up to their younger brothers just as Yugi rushed out of the store with Ryo being dragged along. He abruptly stopped in front of the limousine and Ryo took the opportunity to catch his breath. An older man in a suit was standing in front of them and opened the limo door for them.

"Awesome!" Yugi cheered as he quickly got into the limo and pulled Ryo in with him.

"Please tell me you have a lighter in your pocket." Bakura whispered to Atem.

"Oh yeah, I do." He whispered back before getting into the limo.

After Bakura got in the chauffeur closed the door and walked around to get into the driver's seat. They heard the doors lock, making the four teens feel a bit on edge, well, minus Yugi.

"Hi Mokuba!" Yugi said with a wave.

"Hi Yugi- Wait, stop that!"

Atem and Bakura flinched when they realized Mokuba had been sitting across from them in the limo. He had on a red shirt with white and orange striped sleeves and light blue pants with a bandana around his neck.

"Alright, listen up! I know Seto-"

"Uh, one moment please." Ryo interrupted and nudged Atem in the arm. "Um, can we switch places please?"

"Okay?" He replied.

The two rearranged themselves so Atem was next to Yugi and Ryo was next to Bakura. Ryo latched onto Bakura's arm.

"Sorry, you can continue now."

Mokuba and Bakura both sighed.

"As I was about to say, I know Seto already called you. So you know what this is about at least, but…" Mokuba hesitated to keep talking, making the others curious as to what he had to say. "...But I want to warn you about what he has planned."

"Why should we believe what a gremlin has to say? You're his little brother anyway. You're on his side." Bakura protested.

"Stop calling me a gremlin! You should believe me 'cause I'm tired of fighting with Yugi!" Mokuba shouted and looked down at the floorboard. "We were friends in middle school, remember?"

"Of course I remember! We played Capsule Monsters together all the time. We'd hang out after school and I'd go over to your place and you'd come over to mine. Even after I graduated and went to high school, we'd still meet up and have fun. That was good times." Yugi recalled.

"Right… Then you brought Atem over with you last year and he met Seto… and they played Duel Monsters together… and Seto lost." Mokuba mumbled.

"Oh yeah. We weren't allowed over anymore and I hadn't seen you again until last Monday."

"Exactly! A-and I miss being friends, Yugi! I do… I sided with Seto 'cause he's my brother, I care about him! But he's been so… so angry since he lost. I haven't hung out with any of my others friends and he's been making me be a spy all week so I've missed classes and I can't even enjoy lunch time."

"Woah, woah, woah!" Bakura interrupted. "What have you been spying on?"

Mokuba hesitated to respond to him.

"Mokuba." Atem said.

"Mmm… Okay! Okay! I saw everything that happened yesterday in the gym!" Mokuba confessed, surprising the four teens.

Ryo's grip tightened on Bakura's arm and his brother reached his other arm over to pull Ryo closer. Ryo just wanted to forget about yesterday.

"Mokuba, did you see _everything_?" Atem asked.

"...Yes. I didn't tell Seto about it though. Well, I told him everything except the last thing. I just made up that Mr. Karita ran away. With information like that Seto would only have more ammo against you." Mokuba explained.

"Oh, but what happened to me and Ryo doesn't matter!?" Bakura complained.

"I don't even know you two! If you didn't try to stab Seto then you wouldn't be involved in this, so mind your own business."

Bakura yanked his arm away from Ryo and threw himself at Mokuba, grabbing the younger kid by the shirt collar. "If Kaiba didn't put _my_ business all over the damn school then it wouldn't be! But he did anyway so this crap is my business now too! It's his fault everybody at school knows everything about me! It's his fault people think me and Atem are an item! It's _his_ fault Ryo was put in danger! He can mess with me all he wants, but the second Ryo gets involved I'm out for blood!"

Mokuba froze and tried to push Bakura away from him, but he was far too weak. Atem grabbed Bakura's arms to pull him off of Mokuba and Yugi pulled him back by the waist. When they succeeded in helping Mokuba get free Ryo put his arms around Bakura in a hug in hopes of making him less angry.

"Bakura I know you're mad, but don't take it out on Mokuba. It's not his fault." Atem advised.

Bakura wanted to argue with Atem on that, but looking down at Ryo made him decide not to.

"Mokuba, you said earlier you wanted to warn us. Warn us about what?" Atem asked.

Mokuba composed himself after the attack from Bakura. "Seto does want to have a rematch duel with you but, there's more to it than that. He closed off the upper five floors of Kaiba Land and renovated them to create an obstacle course for you."

"Aww, no way! Obstacle course!? It's like gym class all over again!" Yugi whined.

"How can we believe you, Mokuba? You are Kaiba's brother after all." Atem questioned.

Mokuba paused and hesitated to reply. "...B-because… 'cause I want my brother back. The obstacle course is supposed to be a surprise to throw you off. I'm telling you so you can be prepared for it. I believe if you beat him one more time he'll see all this revenge as pointless and he'll give up. Then I can be friends with Yugi again."

"Don't worry, Mokuba! We never stopped being friends, but that doesn't mean Atem won't beat Kaiba again! He's the best duelist ever!" Yugi reassured him.

Mokuba blushed and smiled at Yugi. "T-thanks Yugi…"

They felt the limo come to a stop and Bakura looked out the window to see the entrance of Kaiba Land.

"When we get in there this conversation never happened." Mokuba said.

Everyone nodded in understanding as the car door opened and Mokuba got out first, followed by Yugi and the others. Ryo looked up and realized exactly how big the building was. Bakura turned to Ryo see the look on his brother's face and glanced up too. It amazed him that Kaiba had the money to build such a place at all. He severely underestimated how rich Kaiba actually was.

"Do you think it's bigger than Elizabeth Tower?" Ryo asked.

"I don't… think it is? Then again, it has been like two months since we saw the tower." Bakura answered.

"What are you two doing!? C'mon!" Mokuba shouted, standing at the door to Kaiba Land with Yugi and Atem.

The two quickly caught up with the group and stepped inside Kaiba Land. Other than Mokuba, none of them had ever been inside of the amusement park. It was only finished a few months ago so Atem and Yugi were banned before it even opened. There must have been hundreds of kids inside, all playing and having fun with their friends and parents. Yugi spotted a directory with a map of the first floor and list of things on the floors above. The top five floors had a sign over them saying they were closed for maintenance. Ryo noticed a roller coaster fly by in the shape of a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and go upwards into a hole in the ceiling.

"How much did this place cost?!" Bakura asked, completely bewildered by everything he was looking at.

"Ten billion yen. Yeah, I know. We're filthy stinking rich." Mokuba answered.

"Ten billion yen!?" Bakura turned to Ryo. "Ryo how much is that in pounds?"

Ryo thought for a second, crunching the numbers in his head. "Uuuuh… A bit over seven million."

"Damn." Bakura muttered.

There was sudden uproar with the kids and they started collectively gathering to the side of the room. Mokuba started walking towards the group of kids and motioned for the four to follow him. Bakura grew uncomfortable being around so many younger kids, but the look on Ryo's face expressed quite the opposite feeling.

"That's Seto Kaiba!" One little girl shouted.

The four suddenly realized why the kids had reacted with such excitement. Kaiba had arrived. They followed closely behind Mokuba who guided them onto a currently unused show stage so they could get a better look. Kaiba became visible in the hoard of kids. He was waving at them as he walked through and they all seemed to move out of his path for him. There was one small boy that seemed frozen right in front of Kaiba's feet who looked too nervous to move. The boy had short fluffy brown hair that was lighter on top and brown eyes. He wore a red hoodie and blue shorts. He had a Duel Monsters card gripped in his small hands. Kaiba stopped and knelt down to the boy's level.

"What's your name?" Kaiba asked him.

"...J-Judai…" The boy answered.

"And how old are you, Judai?"

"F-five…"

"What do you have there?"

"I-it's my favorite Duel Monsters card... It's called Yubel." Judai turned the card around to show it to Kaiba and held it up. "C-can you sign it?"

"Wow, that's a very rare card Judai. Of course I'll sign it." Kaiba pulled a pen from his pocket and took the card from Judai, writing his signature under the artwork before handing it back to the young boy.

Judai's face lit up with a bright smile as he looked down at his favorite card, now adorned with Kaiba's signature. Kaiba pat Judai on the head as he stood up and continued walking.

"Okay, so he's nice to little kids. That doesn't make him any less of an arsehole though." Bakura grumbled.

"Well-"

"That wasn't an invitation to dispute it!" Bakura interrupted Atem.

"Hey, he's leaving guys!" Yugi announced, pointing to Kaiba.

They could see Kaiba headed to an elevator at the back end of the room. He turned around for a moment and looked directly at the group, as if he knew they were there the whole time. Bakura suddenly jumped off the stage and ran towards Kaiba.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" Mokuba shouted.

Ryo gasped. "B-Big Brother!"

Atem jumped down and went after Bakura.

"Go, Atem, go!" Yugi cheered.

Kaiba stood still and patiently watched as Bakura ran towards him. Most of the kids had turned around and we're watching.

"Kaibaaa!" Bakura pulled out his switchblade from his pocket and charged at Kaiba with it held up for him to swing.

When he was just a few feet away and ready to attack Kaiba, Bakura was yanked back by two men in black suits that grabbed him by the arms and slammed him to the ground. Atem came running up.

"Bakura! Kaiba, tell them to let him go!" Atem demanded.

"Why? So he can stab me?" Kaiba questioned.

The younger brothers arrived and Ryo and Yugi stayed behind Atem while Mokuba ran to Kaiba's side.

"Seto, wouldn't it be more fun to watch him go through your 'surprise' rather than kick him out or something?" Mokuba suggested.

"Hmm, I suppose that would be more entertaining to watch. Okay, let him go." Kaiba snapped his fingers.

The two men stepped away from Bakura, who had been struggling to free himself, and moved to stand behind Kaiba. Bakura stumbled to his feet and dusted his clothes off. Before he could try anything else Ryo held onto his wrist. Yugi took a step towards Kaiba.

"Kaiba, are my friends okay?" Yugi asked him.

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are fine upstairs. You'll get them back later." Kaiba answered.

"Wait, who do have?" Atem inquired.

"Anzu Mazaki and Katsuya Jonouchi." Kaiba replied.

"What about Honda?"

"I sent my men to his house, but his sister said he wasn't home."

"And Ryuji?"

"Who?"

"Ryuji Otogi."

"...I don't know who that is."

"Average height. Kinda slim. Black hair, green eyes. Red headband. A single die earring. Has his own fan club full of girls that he completely ignores. Only ever seen flirting with other guys."

"Oh. I didn't know you were friends with him."

"He's new to the group! I think Honda said he was going to spend the day at Ryuji's place actually." Yugi explained.

"Enough with this idle chatting. Listen Atem, all you need to know is that you'll get your pathetic friends back if you beat me. Take the elevator to the sixty-sixth floor. If you can beat me in another duel then you all get to go home nice and quietly." Kaiba stated as he turned around.

"Hold up, Kaiba! You and I have things to settle over what you did yesterday!" Bakura shouted.

"Ah, did you enjoy my little project?" Kaiba questioned, looking over his shoulder at Bakura.

"Because of you and that bloody book Ryo-" Bakura froze when he felt Ryo's grip on his wrist tighten.

"Hmph. Think about what you're going to say before you open your mouth, lapdog." Kaiba said as he started to walk away.

Mokuba made eye contact with Yugi before turning around and following after Kaiba.

"Bakura?" Atem stepped in front of Bakura, who was staring at the ground.

Yugi and Atem glanced at each other, wondering what could've made Bakura suddenly become so quiet when he was facing Kaiba of all people. The little boy that Kaiba spoke to earlier walked past Yugi and Atem to stand in front of Bakura.

"W-why did you attack Mr. Kaiba?" Judai asked him.

Bakura stared at Judai and scowled. He really didn't like kids, especially this one. The more he looked at Judai the more unsettling the boy became to Bakura. It felt like something was off about him. Not in a 'creepy child' kind of way, but more like there was something around him that disturbed Bakura. Something dark.

"Because he did something that made me mad at him." Bakura answered, trying to be child-friendly.

"Why would he do that?" Judai questioned.

Bakura thought for a second. He knew the answer to that question, he just wasn't sure if he could admit it. He glanced from Judai, to Ryo, to Yugi, and finally Atem before looking back down at Judai.

"Because I did something that made him mad at me first." Bakura confessed.

"That's not very nice." Judai told him.

Bakura sighed. "Yeah kid, I know."

Atem crouched down next to Judai. "Excuse me, Judai, right? Thank you for coming over to talk to us, but we have something very important we need to do. Where are your parents?"

"My mom brought me and she said she w-would be in the ca… caffff- cafe! While I go play." Judai said.

"Okay, so why don't you head over there and go see her. It would be best if you had an adult watching you." Atem suggested.

Judai nodded and ran off in the direction he thought the cafe was in.

"Hey! You two didn't forget why we came here, did you!?" Yugi addressed to Bakura and Ryo.

They looked at him and Ryo let go of Bakura.

"O-of course not! We need to go through that obstacle course Mokuba told us about so Atem can duel Kaiba and he'll let Anzu and Jonouchi go free!" Ryo responded.

"Which ones are they?" Bakura asked.

"Anzu is the brunette girl and Jonouchi is the blond guy that asked you what getting arrested felt like." Ryo answered.

"Oh, right." Bakura mumbled.

Atem looked at the two with a confused expression, not knowing when Bakura met them, let alone why Jonouchi would ask him something like that. Yugi just snickered.

"Alright then… let's get this over with as quickly as possible. He said the sixty-sixth floor, so we take the elevator." Atem said as he started walking off.

"Well what else would we take, if not the lift? The stairs?" Bakura sarcastically asked.

"I like you better when you sulk. You're quiet and less snarky." Atem grumbled.

"Oh please, you love it when I'm snarky." Bakura argued.

Atem groaned and glared at Bakura.

They reached the elevator that Kaiba used just a few minutes ago. Atem pressed the button to call the elevator and they stood around to wait for it to arrive. They didn't notice, but Judai walked up behind them and started waiting with them. Once the elevator arrived they let the current people on it get off before getting on it themselves. Judai stood in the back. As they rode the elevator up the multitude of levels, Yugi had a split second thought.

"I hope Anzu and Jonouchi are okay." He mumbled.

"Who knows what kind of tortures Kaiba could be putting them through." Bakura said for the sake of scaring Yugi.

"Bakura!" Atem scolded.

"What?! It's just a joke." Bakura defended.

On the sixty-fifth floor, Anzu and Jonouchi were having their own problems in Kaiba Land.

"I'm all out of lemonade…" Anzu grumbled, shaking an empty glass of ice.

"So ask for another one. What is that anyway, your fourth one?" Jonouchi replied.

They were both laying on different ends of a couch together with their feet propped up and comfy pillows supporting them. Jonouchi was staring at a television mounted on the wall and watching some reality tv show.

"Hey!" Anzu shouted towards the locked door, making Jonouchi's ears hurt. "I need another lemonaaaade!"

Almost immediately a butler came into the room with a tray holding a single glass of pink liquid. The glass also held a tiny umbrella and bendy straw. He took the empty glass from Anzu's hand and she subsequently picked up the full glass, taking a sip of it. The butler rushed out of the room, followed by Kaiba and Mokuba entering.

"Oh great, it's Prince Morbucks and the eight year old." Jonouchi complained.

"I am _not_ eight!" Mokuba protested.

Kaiba grabbed the remote to the television and changed it to a broadcast of an empty room.

"Hey, I was watching that!" Jonouchi said.

"Shut it Blondie. You'll be interested in this." Kaiba stated.

"Omigosh!" Anzu practically screeched. "Jonouchi look! It's Atem!"

She pointed to the side of the screen where Jonouchi saw Atem step out of an elevator followed by Yugi, then Bakura, then Ryo, and finally a little kid they'd never seen before.

"Woah, no way! He really did show up!" Jonouchi said excitedly.

"Mokuba, stay here with the losers." Kaiba said before leaving the room.

"You got it, Seto!" Mokuba made sure Kaiba had a good amount of distance from the room before jumping on the couch, annoying Jonouchi and Anzu. "Alright listen up, 'cause I'm only gonna explain this once!"

In the room, also known as floor sixty-six, the four teens got out of the elevator and we're surprised to see the room completely empty except for a roller coaster track suspended from the ceiling and no floor, only a plastic ball pit underneath the track. The only floor was a few cubic feet of space in front of the elevator.

"This is awesome!" Judai shouted as he ran forward.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Bakura grabbed Judai and picked him up before he had a chance to run right off the edge of the platform.

He uncomfortably held Judai out at arm's length with a somewhat disgusted look on his face. Holding Judai gave Bakura an odd feeling, like what he was holding wasn't actually a small boy. He didn't know how to describe the feeling past that.

"J-Judai!? How did- but… I told you to go to the cafe!" Atem stuttered.

"I talked to my mom and she said to keep playing so I followed you." Judai replied.

"Why?" Ryo asked him.

"You said you had im… important stuff to do and I t-thought you would go see Mr. Kaiba. I want to thank him for signing my card." Judai answered.

"Listen, Judai. This is clearly too dangerous for such a young boy. You need to go back down the elevator and play on the first floor. No one but the four of us are allowed up here." Atem told him.

"That's not fair! You can play up here, I want to play up here too!" Judai argued.

"We're not playing! This is serious business!" Bakura shouted at him.

Judai stared at Bakura for a second until tears started to form in his eyes and he let out a loud cry. It startled the four teens, especially Bakura, making his hair wings shoot up. Surprisingly Judai quickly stopped crying and reached out a hand towards Bakura's head.

"Ah! Baby hands! Nononono! Someone take him, quick!" Bakura desperately shouted.

Ryo came up and took the boy, properly holding Judai in his arms. Judai reached his hands up and grabbed the side of Ryo's hair, yanking on it.

"Ow! O-owww!" Ryo whined.

For some reason Judai started crying again, making everyone flinch and once again it startled Bakura enough to make his hair wings go up. Judai stopped crying and laughed at the sight of it. It dawned on Ryo and Atem what was making Judai react in such a way. Ryo approached Bakura with Judai, making his elder brother back up. Yugi stared at them with confusion and curiosity.

"Ryo. Don't come near me with that kid. You know I hate screaming little brats." Bakura warned.

Atem snuck up behind him and reached up to grab Bakura's hair wings. He wiggled them despite Bakura trying to shake him off. Judai started laughing like crazy.

"Get your damn hands out of my hair!" Bakura ordered. "What is wrong with you!?

Ryo shoved Judai into Bakura's arms, who really didn't want to take the kid, but didn't want to drop him either. Judai reached up and grabbed Bakura's hair, laughing when he tugged on the wing like hair.

"Hey! O-ow damn it!" Bakura complained.

"Don't curse in front of a little kid, Big Brother." Ryo scolded.

"Oh please, I curse in English. He has no clue what I'm saying." Bakura retorted.

"Guys, elevator doesn't work!" Yugi announced, standing in front of the elevator and continually pressing the button to call it.

Bakura groaned and Atem walked over to try the button for himself. Yugi was right, the elevator wouldn't arrive. If they didn't move forward they'd be stuck there. Atem sighed at the revelation and looked to the center of the room. He knew this was the obstacle course Mokuba told them about, but he didn't imagine it to be so… different.

"Alright, the only thing we can do is make it through this course and get to Kaiba." Atem stated.

"But Judai..." Ryo protested.

"Yeah, we can't bring- ow. This kid- ow. With us- ow! That one hurt, knock it off! Bakura shouted, rubbing his head.

Judai got mad and yanked Bakura's hair harder.

"Ouch! Alright, that's it you lil' shit! You're going overboard!" Bakura tried to hold Judai over the edge of the platform, but Atem and Ryo held him back.

"Stop it! Unfortunately he has to come with us. The elevator won't work so we can't send him back and I'm afraid he might fall if we leave him here." Atem explained.

"It's a ball pit. It's not like he'll die. Why the hell is there a ball pit anyway? Did Kaiba let the gremlin design this thing? This isn't really a traditional obstacle course." Bakura snarked.

"Dibs on it first!" Yugi called as he ran off the platform and jumped to grab a part of the track that was hanging down.

"Yugi!" They all shouted.

"I'm okay! Get on, it's kinda fun actually." Yugi said.

The track swung slightly at the impact of Yugi's landing, making everyone nervous that it might fall. He started going across it like a horizontal ladder and leaving the others behind on the platform.

"Yugi-"

"Relax! Everything's okay! We need to get moving!" Yugi interrupted Atem.

Bakura sighed and put Judai on the floor before crouching down in front of him. "Okay kiddo, piggyback ride."

"Yay!" Judai cheered as he jumped on Bakura's back and held on by grabbing his hair.

Bakura felt a stinging pain in his head, but ignored it best he could.

"Bakura, what are you doing?" Atem asked him.

"Yugi's right, we gotta move forward. Hold on kid, if you fall I'm not gonna save you." Bakura ran to the edge of the platform and jumped.

He grabbed the roller coaster track and climbed up so he was in a more stable position. The track shook, making Yugi stay still so he wouldn't fall off. Judai gripped tighter onto Bakura and dug his knees into Bakura's ribs.

"Kid, I have terrible upper body strength. If you crack one of my ribs I am dropping you in the ball pit and I will not regret it." Bakura threatened.

"Sorry!" Judai apologized.

Back on the platform, Ryo grew nervous and Atem placed a hand on Ryo's back.

"You go next Ryo. I'll be right behind you so if anything happens you can count on me." Atem reassured him.

Ryo nodded. It helped to hear that, but it wasn't enough to calm his nerves. He couldn't bring himself to jump for it. On the floor below them, Kaiba was sitting at a desk surrounded by computer screens. He watched intently as Yugi and Bakura made their way along the track and Ryo and Atem stood on the platform.

"Let's move things along." Kaiba said to himself.

He entered commands on his keyboard and sat back to watch the action. Ryo and Atem felt the platform underneath them shift and they looked down to see the platform start retracting into the wall.

"Ryo! Jump now!" Atem ordered.

Without even thinking about it Ryo ran for the track and jumped. He made it enough to grab the very end of the track and hung there. Bakura stopped and looked back.

"Ryo, are you okay?" Bakura asked, concerned for his brother.

"Mhm-hm!" Ryo pulled himself up best he could and climbed the track until he was behind Bakura.

Once Ryo moved out of the way Atem ran to the edge of what little was left of the platform and jumped. He made it much easier than Ryo did and climbed up, stopping behind Ryo who was visibly shaking. Everyone stopped moving to give a track a moment to settle. Downstairs, the three sitting on the couch collectively let out a sigh of relief.

"Okay, why the heck did that happen?! Atem and Ryo were practically forced off of there!" Anzu frantically asked while taking a sip of her lemonade.

"Everything on these top five floors was renovated and is now controlled by a single control panel. Seto can make whatever he wants to happen, happen. He's making them speed up so they're always on edge." Mokuba answered.

"That's not fair to them!" Jonouchi complained.

"I may not agree with it right now either, but this is Kaiba Land. In here Seto controls who lives and who dies." Mokuba replied.

"Woah! Is Kaiba going to try and kill them?" Anzu questioned.

"No, but it is dangerous on that thing. They could die _pretty_ easily." Mokuba responded.

Anzu and Jonouchi flinched and went back to watching the screen, hoping no harm would come to their friends. Back upstairs Bakura started moving again and Ryo and Atem followed closely behind him. Yugi, on the other hand, casually continued on far up ahead.

Bakura finally got annoyed and groaned. "Ryo, I can feel you shaking. You're not making it easy to move here."

"S-sorry, Big Brother! I'm just nervous. I keep staring at the ball pit. What if I fall?" Ryo whined.

"You won't fall, Ryo. Bakura and I are right here. This isn't a safe situation, but we'll make sure you're as safe as possible." Atem tried to comfort him.

"Besides, if you fell I'd jump in after you." Bakura promised.

Ryo nodded and smiled best he could despite being so scared. He looked up for a moment to see Judai sitting on Bakura's back and holding his brother's hair like he was riding a horse. The sight made Ryo chuckle slightly.

"Hey, look at him!" Judai shouted and pointed at Yugi.

The three teens looked up to see Yugi already at the other end of the roller coaster track. What surprised them was that he was standing on the track and waving at them with a big grin on his face.

"Yugi! What are you doing?! Get down before you slip off!" Atem demanded.

"Relax, Atem! I'm fine! I'll wait for you guys at the elevator!" Yugi called out, then turned around.

Downstairs Kaiba quickly entered a command on his keyboard. "Oh no you won't, Yugi."

Just as Yugi was about to jump onto the platform, the entire track started wobbling violenting. Ryo yelped and gripped onto the track with all his strength. Judai bent down and put his arms around Bakura's neck, stopping him from breathing for the time being. Yugi barely stayed on the track at all. The second it started shaking he stumbled and his foot slipped.

"Aahhh!" Yugi fell off and plummeted into the ball pit.

The others held on for dear life as the track slowly stopped shaking and they watched Yugi sink into the pit.

The track finally settled and Bakura yanked Judai's arms off of his neck, panting for air. "Hah, hah, hah… Geez kid, I almost -hah- blacked out! Hah, hah…"

"Whoops." Judai muttered.

"Yugi! Yugi, can you hear me?!" Atem shouted.

"Yuuugiii!" Ryo called out.

"I don't see him. Did he sink to the bottom?" Bakura wondered.

Suddenly Yugi's head popped up from the ball pit, both surprising and calming the other three teens.

"I'm okay! I-it's kinda… kinda hard to stay up though! I think this pit is… ugh… really deep!" Yugi kept sinking back down and struggled to keep his head up.

Atem let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness! Yugi, is there any way you can get up to the elevator?"

Yugi looked around best he could and spotted the underside of the platform above him. He tried to find a ladder or maybe something else he could use, but didn't see anything except the colorful plastic balls around him. He turned and looked back up at the others.

"No, there's nothing!" He answered.

Yugi suddenly felt some kind of force tug him down slightly. It didn't feel like anything touched him, but something certainly tried to yank him under. He felt it again and was dragged to the bottom of the ball pit. Yugi fought to reach the surface again, but the only thing he could grab was the balls and that didn't help. He tried shouting and screaming, not knowing if the others could hear him, and kicked as much as he could. The force was too strong and Yugi couldn't see anything anymore. He wasn't even sure where he was.

"Yugi!? Yugi what happened!? Yugi!" Atem shouted.

"Is… is he gone?" Bakura questioned.

"Yugi…" Ryo put a hand over his mouth in fear.

They were silent for a moment. They couldn't imagine what could have happened to Yugi and they didn't know what they could do to help.

"Keep going, Bakura." Atem ordered.

Bakura looked back to him with a confused expression. "But… what about Yugi? Shouldn't we-"

"We need to move forward! We can't stop here. It's not like he's dead, this is only Kaiba Land after all. Just keep going." Atem interrupted.

The look on his face told Bakura he wanted to do anything but leave Yugi behind, but he had a point. If they did nothing they wouldn't get anywhere. The only thing to do was to head to the elevator. Bakura kept crawling along the track, Ryo right behind him, and Atem straggling slightly in the back. Bakura reached the end, where Yugi fell off, and stopped.

"Alright kid. I need you to jump off first. Do _not_ mess it up." Bakura told Judai.

"Okie dokie." Judai said with a nod of his head.

The boy scooted off of Bakura's back and stood on the track in front of him. None of them knew if Judai was actually capable of making the jump, but they hoped he could do it anyway. Judai made a jump for it and landed on the edge of the platform, dropping to his knees. It wasn't graceful, but he made it nonetheless. He looked up and held a thumb up at the teens, proud of himself for doing it. Judai stood up and waited near the elevator for the others.

Bakura was next. He readied himself and sprung from the track almost like a cat. He landed pretty hard on the platform and his launch made the track shake, scaring Ryo. It took Bakura a moment before he could regain his strength and get to his feet.

"Ryo, you're up!" Bakura announced, holding his arms out. "I'll catch you, so don't be afraid."

Ryo crawled to the end and stopped. He felt his heart start beating faster in his chest and he became dizzy. Atem placed a hand on Ryo's leg and the younger looked back at him.

"You can do it, Ryo." Atem encouraged him.

His expression was meant to be reassuring, but Ryo could easily tell that Atem was faking it. The fact that Atem was putting on a brave face at all did help Ryo though. He was trying to help, even despite feeling crushed about Yugi disappearing. Ryo nodded and looked back to Bakura. He trusted that his brother would catch him, even if it wouldn't be a perfect landing. Ryo shut his eyes and threw himself at Bakura, hoping for the best. He hit something and heard a sound come from Bakura. When Ryo opened his eyes he was laying on Bakura, who looked like he was in quite a bit of pain.

Ryo sat up and smiled. "I did it! I did it, Big Brother!"

"Yay! Congwatulatons!" Judai cheered, clapping for Ryo.

"G-great. Now get… o-off me, Ryo…" Bakura groaned.

"Eep! S-sorry!" Ryo got off Bakura and helped his brother stand up.

"Uugh… C'mon, Atem. I'm ready to get out of here." Bakura said.

Without hesitation, Atem approached the edge and jumped off. He landed fairly cleanly, only stumbling a little bit upon contact. The other two were quite impressed with how easy he made it look. Atem steadied himself and instead of heading for the elevator, he turned around to stare down at the ball pit. Bakura walked up and put a hand on Atem's shoulder.

"What if he's still in there…" Atem muttered.

"I think he'd tell us to keep going. Just like you and I have already said. We can't do anything except move forward." Bakura told him.

"He's my little brother. I've always looked out for him best I could, but this time… I couldn't… I couldn't do anything for him…" Atem balled his hands into fists.

"I know how you feel. I'd be going through the same thing if it was Ryo instead. Take your own advice man, let's go." Bakura advised.

Before Atem could protest, the platform shifted and started moving into the wall. Bakura reacted first and backed up against the wall, pulling Atem back with him.

"Ryo, call the lift!" He ordered.

"Right!" Ryo pressed the button for the elevator.

Judai grabbed onto Ryo's leg and once the edge of the platform reached him Ryo picked him up. They barely had a foot left of room on the platform when the door to the elevator opened and they ran inside. There was a collective sigh of relief as the elevator doors closed. Judai reached his arms out towards Bakura and leaned over to him.

"Oh bloody hell no. I am not holding you anymore." He objected.

"Big Brother, you're the biggest one here. I can't hold him very long and putting him down probably isn't safe." Ryo said.

"What do you mean 'biggest one here'? I'm only a couple centimeters taller than you and we weigh the same thing!" Bakura argued.

"Bakura, you seem to be the one Judai likes most. He might cry if you don't hold him." Atem informed him.

Bakura groaned and glared at Judai.

"Kura! Kura!" Judai called him.

Bakura's eyes widened a bit, but he quickly went back to glaring and took Judai from Ryo. "I can guarantee you the person he likes most is Kaiba, but as long as it keeps him from screaming his head off then fine."

Judai immediately reached up and grabbed one of Bakura's hair wings, making Bakura yelp in pain.

"Did one of you press the button yet?" Atem asked.

"Oh! Whoops." Ryo pressed the only button on the elevator to go up.

"Really?" Bakura complained.

"Sorry, we were all panicking." Ryo apologized.

They were quiet the rest of the elevator ride up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yu-Gi-Oh! GX au where everything is the same except the Yubel card has Kaiba's signature on it. -shot-
> 
> Okay, if I have to call Jaden 'Judai' anymore, I'm gonna be physically sick. I'm sorry, but I really hate calling him Judai. You have no idea how many aneurysms I'm gonna get from calling Odion 'Rishid' in the future. Ugggh...
> 
> Lol so, I originally only had 'Jaden' in one scene, then I put him in two... then impulse told me "put him in the entire chapter" so now five-year-old Jaden's gonna be here for awhile. I actually texted a friend if I should throw him in there permanently or not and she said I already put in the effort to add him at all, so a cameo became an actual plot relevant character...
> 
> Also, this is totally not on purpose a rehash of the Death-T arc! It happened on accident and I didn't mean for Jaden to become a slightly less annoying form of Johji! I had the obstacle course idea in my head even before reading that arc, so this is just a bad coincidence, but it's whatever I guess :/
> 
> And technically I didn't lie about the Marik's being in chapter five, cuz I found a loophole! The next chapter isn't chapter five, it's chapter 4, part 2! Y'all can't say nothing! (I'm sorry plz forgive me! I want the Mariks too! I know, I'm the author and all, but I can't stop myself from delaying it! It's just happening on it's own!)


	5. Destiny's Bag of Sharing (Part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told y'all summer school would make me lose motivation. Okay, to make a long story short: Summer school ruined my motivation, obviously. Then I bought Bravely Default and got so obsessed with it that I told myself I'd finish the chapter after I finished the game... turns out I underestimated how long a 3DS game can be. Then I put off writing it because I still didn't understand the card game! Then I changed fandoms and worked on other stuff instead.
> 
> But!! I recently got a new phone which means I could finally play Duel Links~ Yay! So that made me want to get back into YGO and finish this chapter, which miraculously has now happened! Plus I slightly understand the card game now too. (P.S. Be my friend on DL. My ID is 732-297-868)
> 
> Now... there's some other news that I should say... but I'll let you read the whole chapter first before I say it...

Downstairs Jonouchi and Anzu had Mokuba surrounded on the couch.

“What happened to Yugi!?” Anzu shouted at him.

“Yeah, where’d he go!?” Jonouchi backed her up.

“Calm down! Yugi is fine! He should be here any second. In fact, I would advise against staying on the couch.” Mokuba suggested.

“What does that have to do with Yugi!?” Anzu questioned.

Not a second later the ceiling opened above the couch and Yugi fell on top of the three sitting on the couch followed by plenty of plastic balls.

“Oof! Ugh...” Yugi groaned.

“Aah!!” Anzu screamed.

“Holy crap!” Jonouchi shouted in surprise.

“Ouchies!” Mokuba whined.

“Woah, that was pretty fun! Hehe!” Yugi rolled off the couch and landed on the floor before sitting up.

“Yug! You're okay!” Jonouchi cheered as he got on the floor and hugged Yugi.

Anzu joined in and hugged Yugi too, making Yugi blush at the contact with her. Mokuba pulled his knees close to his chest and looked the other way.

“Yep! I'm okay! And you guys are too! Glad to see Kaiba didn't torture you after all!” Yugi said.

“What happened to you, Yugi? We saw you fall into the ball pit and disappear.” Anzu asked.

“Uh, I dunno. Something pulled me under until I hit the bottom of the pit. I guess I ended up in some kinda tube, kinda like a slide, and I landed in here.” Yugi explained.

“At least we know you're okay, but Atem doesn't know that. He was real worried when ya didn't come back up.” Jonouchi said.

“Huh? How do you know?” Yugi questioned.

“We've been watching on the tv, see.” Anzu pointed to the television.

Yugi looked behind him and saw the screen showing an empty room he didn't recognize. The camera was pointed down a long thin hallway and on the other end he could see a closed elevator door. He had no idea they were being filmed. Yugi stood up and looked back at the couch to see Mokuba.

“Hey Mokuba! No hug too?” Yugi flashed Mokuba a bright smile and held his arms out.

Mokuba hesitated before quickly getting off the couch and wrapping his arms around Yugi in a tight hug. “Oh Yugi! I'm sorry Seto is putting you guys through this.”

Yugi patted Mokuba on the back. “It's cool. I didn't make it, but I know the others will, so no problem!”

Mokuba pulled away and stared at Yugi. “You're always way too positive.”

“Hehe, yeah!” Yugi laughed and smiled again.

“Hey, they're here now!” Anzu announced, watching the screen.

Everyone looked over to the television to see the elevator doors open and the three teens walk into the room. They looked around to figure out where they were, but there was nothing around. The room was just a long hallway.

“So there's more to it. I thought that last room didn't add up with what Mokuba told us about.” Atem observed.

“But… it's just a hallway. This doesn't seem like much of an obstacle course.” Ryo said.

“There’s gotta be something else going on here.” Bakura stated.

Atem thought for a moment. “But what exactly…?”

“Yubel says we need to run through really fast!” Judai told them.

Ryo and Atem looked at Judai with confused expressions and Bakura glared at him.

“What are you talking about brat?” Bakura questioned.

“Yubel, my Duel Monsters card!” Judai pulled the same card he had before out of his hoodie pocket and showed it to the others. “She says the only way for everyone to get through is to run super duper fast and not stop!”

“Damn it, kid!! This isn't a game here!” Bakura shouted, clearly pissed off, and practically dropped Judai on the ground.

Atem stepped between Bakura and Judai. “Bakura, don't get mad at him. He's a little kid, he doesn't understand the situation.”

“He's just trying to help too.” Ryo added.

“I don't care if you think he's trying to help! He's nothing but baggage!” As soon as Bakura said that he felt an odd pressure around himself that made him uncomfortable.

“Well it's not like this is his fault. Getting mad won't help anything right now.” Atem told him.

“Nothing can help right now!” Bakura protested. “Especially not anything a stupid kid has to say! All we can do is move forward, and ya know what? If we keep going, Yugi might not be the only one we lose! Kaiba could just hope we all make careless mistakes until there's no one left to face him! Then what? I doubt we'd be allowed to just walk away at that point!”

Atem sighed. “What do you plan to do then? Stand around waiting for him to come to us? I don't trust going forward either, but there's no other choice. There's no going back so forward is the only option.”

Ryo simply stood by and watched as the elder two argued. He didn't think anything he could say would calm his brother down so he kept quiet. The shadowy figure looming behind Bakura made Ryo too nervous to act anyway. He opted to check on Judai instead since he didn't want the boy thinking he'd done something wrong.

“Judai, don't worry about anything, okay- Judai?!” Ryo turned around to see that Judai had run off down the empty hallway by himself. “Atem! Big Brother!”

The two stopped arguing and looked over to Ryo, seeing Judai running away behind him.

“Grab him!!” Atem ordered.

Ryo ran down the hall first, followed by Atem and Bakura. 

“Judai! Please come back here!” Ryo called out to him.

“No way!” Judai protested, running for his life.

“See! He's just a problem!” Bakura shouted.

Bakura again felt a pressure around him. It was stronger than before and it made breathing difficult for him. He stopped running and leaned a hand against the wall to catch his breath. Atem looked back and stopped, running back to Bakura who looked like he might pass out. Ryo kept running after Judai, unaware that the other two had stopped. When Judai reached the elevator on the other end of the hallway he turned to see Ryo right behind him and Bakura farther back. He knew exactly what was happening to Bakura and it scared the young boy.

“Yubel!! Stop!” Judai shouted.

All at once the pressure around Bakura disappeared, allowing him to breath just fine, and the floor underneath Ryo opened up. Bakura looked up as Ryo screamed and saw his little brother fall through the ground. The floor closed back up as if nothing ever happened.

“ _Ryooo_!!” Bakura frantically got up and ran to where he saw Ryo fall, Atem following behind him.

Bakura dropped to his knees and banged a fist on the ground. When nothing happened he punched it again and again and again. Even when his hand started going numb and his knuckles turned red he didn't stop. It took Atem holding his arm back for Bakura to finally quit.

“Calm down, Bakura! It's clearly not working!” Atem said.

Bakura stared down at the ground, his face hidden by his hair. Judai slowly walked up to Bakura and put a hand on his head, hoping it would help the distraught teen. Two floors down everyone sitting on the couch was on edge. It hurt them all to watch Bakura be in so much pain and not know Ryo would be perfectly safe. They were all so distracted by the screen that they didn't notice the ceiling open up again. There was faint screaming that became louder and Mokuba looked up just as Ryo fell onto everyone sitting on the couch. There were several groans of pain and Jonouchi pushed Ryo off of himself. Ryo fell off the couch and stumbled to his feet, feeling dizzy.

“Ryo!” Yugi cheered and got up to hug Ryo.

“Yugi…? Yugi! You're okay! We were so concerned about what happened to you!” Ryo excitedly hugged Yugi back.

“Don't worry, Ryo! Everything’s alright!” Yugi reassured him.

“What happened though? How did I get here?” Ryo looked up at the ceiling. “I know I fell, but…”

“Seto made the floor under you collapse.” Mokuba answered. “He's been controlling everything that's happening to you guys.”

“R-really?! B-but that's not fair.” Ryo complained.

“That’s no problem! Our big brothers’ll make it to the end just fine!” Yugi cheered.

“Yep! Atem is strong and brave, he can get through anything Kaiba dishes out at him no matter what it is!” Anzu said with an overly confident look in her eyes.

“I think ya might be forgettin’ Bakura’s in there too.” Jonouchi mumbled.

Ryo looked at Anzu, then Jonouchi. “Have you both been in here the whole time?”

“Yeah. It's pretty comfy fer a kidnappin’. We even get room service.” Jonouchi explained.

“They keep bringing me lemonade, it's pretty sweet.” Anzu noted.

“Hey, enough chitchat. Things are getting bad!” Mokuba interrupted watching the screen.

Everyone gasped when they looked to the television to see Bakura pick up Judai by the hoodie and Atem attempt to stop him.

“This is your fault, isn't it!?” Bakura yelled at Judai.

“Bakura, put him down! You're being irrational!” Atem shouted.

“All this weird random crap is happening because of you, isn't it!! Ryo and Yugi are gone thanks to you, aren't they!! Who knows what kind of situation they could be in now! Are you making all this happen for Kaiba!? Did he set you up to this!? And what the bloody hell is the Yubel thing about!?” Bakura interrogated the poor boy.

Judai started crying and kicking so he could get out of Bakura’s grasp. A sudden force knocked Bakura back, making him drop Judai, and pushed him hard enough for him to land on the ground a few feet back. Atem hesitated on who to help first, but ultimately went to Judai and helped the young boy to his feet. He wiped away Judai’s tears and pulled him close to comfort him.

“Bakura?” Atem called out, worried for his friend.

Atem was slightly relieved to see Bakura put a hand up in the air before quickly dropping it back down. He must have had the wind knocked out of him. Bakura struggled as he sat up and rubbed his head. He felt like he got punched in the chest. He slowly got to his feet and leaned against the wall.

“Judai… do you… know what happened?” Atem asked.

Judai paused and stared at the ground before nodding his head. “Yubel got mad that Kura was being mean and pushed him. She didn't do anything before that… except try to scare Kura.”

Atem just stared at Judai. He wasn't sure whether or not to believe Judai. He was only five and kids usually have quite the imaginations, but nothing could’ve pushed Bakura like that if it's wasn't physical. Before Atem could stop him, Judai ran at Bakura and shoved his face into the older boy’s shirt.

“I'm sorry Yubel got maaad!” Judai apologized, shocking Bakura.

Bakura looked down at Judai, unsure how to handle the situation. Just a few minutes ago he was yelling in the kid’s face and now Judai was the one apologizing for something he didn't even do. It reminded him of Ryo. Bakura put a hand on Judai’s head, just as the boy had done for him earlier.

“It's okay, kiddo... I got mad too.” Bakura said.

Bakura looked up to Atem who was waiting at the elevator. He grew concerned when he saw a humanoid shadow standing next to Atem. It was faint and barely noticeable. Bakura wasn't even sure he would have noticed it if it didn't move into the wall all of a sudden.

“...I…” Judai started, making Bakura look back down at him. “I didn't follow ‘cause I was told to. I wanna meet Mr. Kaiba again… I didn't do anything. Yubel didn't do anything. The only stuff she did was to you.”

Bakura crouched down to Judai’s level. “You promise you nor Yubel caused us to lose Ryo and Yugi?”

Judai nodded at Bakura.

Bakura sighed. He didn't know what to believe about the Yubel thing. It was just a card and Judai was just a kid, but was Yubel really the explanation for all the weird feelings Bakura was getting around him? The platforms moving, Yugi disappearing, and Ryo falling through the floor. Those things weren't Yubel, however, Yubel was the cause of everything happening to Bakura according to Judai. Did Yubel not like him? He wasn't exactly nice to Judai, so it would make sense.

“Listen kid, who is Yubel?” Bakura asked.

“Yubel is… Yubel is my friend, Yubel is my card too, and Yubel… is magical.” Judai answered.

Bakura hung his head low in defeat. That didn't really answer his question. Nonetheless, he decided not to press Judai further and stood up. The boy grabbed onto his hand, surprising Bakura, and they walked up to Atem.

“Are you calm now?” Atem questioned.

Bakura leaned in to whisper to Atem. “Everything’s fine now, but… Ugh, man… Based off what I've seen and what I believe, whatever Yubel is, it's real.”

“Are you serious?” Atem wasn't exactly skeptical, but it was hard for him to believe.

“The guy who can wipe people’s memories is questioning if a bloody trading card is real.”

“Okay, okay. Good point. I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like it. Let’s hurry up and get to Kaiba. I want this over.”

Next to them the door to the elevator opened up and the two teens went wide-eyed. They looked to Judai, who wasn't even near the button to call the elevator, and looked back to each other.

"Yubel says that was her! I told her to say sorry so she pressed the button.” Judai explained.

That didn't exactly help to calm Bakura and Atem. If anything, it made them more concerned. Judai happily ran inside the elevator and waited for the two teens. They hesitated for a moment, then cautiously stepped into the elevator. Without either of them pressing the button to go up, the doors closed and they started going up to the next floor.

“Uh… thank you… Yubel…?” Atem nervously said.

Bakura felt a tug on his shirt and looked down to see Judai motioning to be picked up.

“Kura?” Judai called him.

Bakura sighed and picked him up. Judai immediately grabbed Bakura’s hair wings again, but this time he didn't pull on them.

Three floors down, Anzu and Yugi were enjoying their glasses of lemonade as they watched the screen change to a new room. The new room was almost the same size as the first floor of the obstacle course. There were numerous sections of the floor that were missing and the spaces were filled with the same plastic balls as before. It seemed like the spaces got wider towards the opposite end of the room.

“Hey Ryo, you should totally try this lemonade! It's really good!” Yugi suggested.

“Told you it is.” Anzu bragged.

“Mm… okay.” Ryo said.

Yugi held the drink up to Ryo, who hesitated before taking a sip through the straw. Mokuba glared at Ryo as he drank Yugi’s lemonade. Ryo was surprised at how delicious it was and smiled.

“Wow, it's amazing!” Ryo commented.

“Hey, I wanna try it!” Jonouchi shouted.

“Okay!” Yugi held the drink out to Jonouchi. “Here ya go!”

Jonouchi drank some of the lemonade, eliciting another glare from Mokuba.

“Holy crap! It _is_ good!” Jonouchi cheered.

“Mm-hm! Mokuba, you wanna try?” Yugi put the drink up to Mokuba’s face.

Mokuba went wide-eyed as he stared at the glass and hesitated. “U-um… No thanks. I have that drink like every time I come here, so it's nothing special to me.”

“At least you're not gross like them, Mokuba. Sharing a drink is so not sanitary.” Anzu complained.

“There's nothing unsanitary about it. I share food and drinks with Atem all the time!” Yugi argued.

“And I do too with my brothers.” Ryo added.

“That’s different, you're related! It's gross when it's someone you're not related to!” Anzu protested.

“What about couples?” Ryo asked.

“T-t-t-t-that's also different!!” Anzu shouted, suddenly blushing.

“Yugi, I change my mind. Can I have some of your lemonade?” Mokuba asked in a flat tone.

Upstairs the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, revealing the new room and next phase of the obstacle course to the three boys. They stepped out of the elevator and the doors closed behind them, confining them to the room. They observed the room to get their bearings before Bakura spoke up.

“Alright, we've got a problem on this one.” Bakura stated.

Atem looked at him with a curious expression. “How so?”

“How are we supposed to get to the other side without jumping across? I have poor stamina and you and the kid have short legs.” Bakura explained.

“S-short? I'll have you know my legs are proportional to the rest of my body.” Atem defended.

“That doesn't change the fact that you're short.” Bakura stated.

“Ugh… Okay, I think I have an idea. Judai is no problem, we can just throw him across first. As for us, one can help the other in the event the other has trouble making the jump.” Atem suggested.

Bakura stared at Judai for a moment, who looked up at him in return.

“Toddler tossing.” Bakura mumbled.

“Don’t say that like it's a sport, Bakura!” Atem scolded.

“Relax, geez. You don't think that Yubel thing will get mad at us for throwing him, do you? Bakura wondered.

Atem hesitated on answering as he was pretty unsure about the answer to that.

“Yubel says only… only Kura can throw me, but not-not in a mean way.” Judai answered for him.

“...Well, that solves that question… We shouldn't waste anymore time, go ahead and toss him over.” Atem said.

“Alright kiddo, ready?” Bakura asked, putting his hands under Judai’s arms to get the boy into a more ‘throwable’ position.

“Weady!” Judai cheered.

Bakura swung Judai a few times to get good momentum then released him at the peak of the last swing. Atem and everyone downstairs held their breath as they watched Bakura throw Judai. The boy flew over the first gap and landed on the ground, doing a partial roll before finding himself sitting nicely on the ground with nothing out of place except some ruffled hair. While he passed the ball pit underneath him just a few moments ago a giant object quickly swung by, making everyone's hearts skip a beat. Bakura let out a very audible, very loud gasp.

“What the bloody hell was that!?” He shouted.

The same object flew by again from the other side, startling everyone once more. It continued to swing from side to side, slowing down greatly each time until it was practically still.

“It's a… punching bag?” Atem observed.

It was indeed a punching bag, albeit, a rather large one. Once the bag lost all momentum and was completely still it began ascending to the ceiling from the cable it was attached to. They watched as the bag continued up higher and once they saw the ceiling they were shocked. Both sides of the ceiling had similar bags attached and ready to fall at any second.

“It’s like Wipeout!” Bakura exclaimed. “Only there’s no water, and it’s not funny… and probably hurts like hell…”

“What are you talking about? ...Ugh, nevermind.” Atem looked to Judai. “Judai! Are you okay?”

The boy looked back to the teens. “I’m okie dokie!”

They were relieved to know he wasn’t hurt from the landing, but they had another problem to worry about. Bakura continued to stare at the ceiling.

“Do you think it’ll come back down?” He wondered.

“They must be like traps. Once they’re triggered it won’t happen again. But… that creates an odd circumstance. If we continue to send Judai across before us, the two of us won’t have to deal with the traps. It’s almost like-”

“Like we’re cheating!” Bakura interrupted Atem. “Hah! Stupid Kaiba didn’t see us throwing a toddler across coming! Way to go, kiddo!”

“Yay!” Judai cheered as he stood up, unsure what he was being praised for.

“Yes, yes. Like we're cheating. I suppose, I mean, I can't see how we could be breaking any rules like this. But Kaiba would probably be very disappointed to know one of his little tricks finally didn't work.” Atem stated.

Three floors below them, Kaiba slammed a fist down on the arm of his chair.

“How dare you and your lapdog mock me, Atem! I'll show you both everything I've got up my sleeve!” Kaiba shouted, despite nobody being able to hear him.

Upstairs, Bakura stepped back towards the elevator before running to the edge and jumping across. He landed next to Judai and stumbled a little, falling to his hands and knees.

“Haha! Kura fell!” Judai laughed at him.

“Watch it kid, or I'll kick you into the ball pit.” Bakura grumbled as he stood up.

“Yubel says to not say mean things to me.” Judai stated.

“Yeah, well Yubel can go suck it so how ‘bout that!” Bakura exclaimed.

“Bakura, don't instigate a fight.” Atem warned.

“Whatever, just get over he-ugh!” Bakura got momentarily choked by a rough tug on the back of his shirt collar.

“Yubel, be nice!” Judai ordered as Bakura coughed numerous times.

“One would think he'd learn his lesson the first time…” Atem mumbled and shook his head.

Suddenly the ground underneath Atem started shaking and descending into the ball pit.

“Oh no, not again.” He complained.

“Woah, dude! Come on, jump!” Bakura frantically shouted.

Atem quickly ran to the edge and leapt across, easily making it over with a clean landing in front of Bakura. The platform sank into the ball pit until it finally disappeared.

“Why in the world does that keep happening?” Atem questioned, clearly annoyed.

“Let's go! Yubel says it might uh, happen… again!” Judai shouted.

“I'm gonna have to agree with the toddler, we can't dawdle here any longer.” Bakura stated and picked up Judai.

“Yes,” Atem glanced back to where the platform formerly stood just moments ago. “let's finish this as quickly as possible.”

The two teens turned toward the next platform. The space in between the one they stood on and the one ahead of them seemed a bit larger than the previous space. Fortunately, it wasn't enough of a difference to cause any hesitation yet. 

“Whenever you're ready, Bakura, just throw him over.” Atem said.

“Twow me! Twow me!” Judai shouted and reached his arms up in the air.

“I think he's getting a little too eager about this.” Bakura grumbled.

He held Judai in the same position as before and swung him a few times before abruptly stopping when the ground started sinking. Judai let out a yelp and grabbed onto Bakura’s arm.

“Oh crap!” Bakura shouted.

“It seems this isn't going to stop happening. We have to hurry to the other side without throwing Judai first anymore.” Atem stated.

“What!? Are you sure about that!?” Bakura questioned.

“If our platforms keep sinking in like this then we won't have enough time to wait for the traps on the ceiling. We all need to jump across together at the same time or we risk whoever's behind getting hit or falling into the pit.” The shorter teen explained.

“Fine, fine!” Bakura groaned.

“Kuraaaa!!” Judai practically screeched and flailed his legs when he looked down to see the ball pit creeping higher up.

“Ch-chill out, kid! Stop panicking!!” Bakura struggled with keeping a hold of Judai while the toddler flailed around until he simply held Judai under his arm.

“I don't think that's very secure, Bakura.” Atem observed.

"Well we don't have time to be secure, now do we? Let's go!” Bakura exclaimed.

Atem glanced down at the encroaching ball pit. “...Right. On the count of three then. We keep going all the way to the end and don't stop for anything.”

Bakura nodded and Judai clasped his small hands over his mouth to quiet his own whimpering.

“One.”

Ryo’s fists clenched at the bottom of his shirt and Yugi’s grip on his glass of lemonade tightened as they watched their big brothers continue to stand on the descending platform.

“Two.”

Kaiba stared intently at his screen and tapped a finger on the arm of his chair waiting, hoping, that the two would mess up somewhere along the line.

“Three!”

An unseen force watched them sprint off and jump to the next platform safely. As the punching bag dropped from the ceiling behind them it followed closely next to the teens, keeping an eye on poor Judai who clearly looked like he wasn't having fun anymore. They didn't stop and kept running to the edge of the platform and jumping. The spaces between the platforms were getting larger. They didn't want to admit it, but Bakura was quickly getting tired, especially with the extra weight of Judai, and Atem was struggling to jump with each new platform thanks to his short legs. Bakura felt his hair get pushed by the punching bag swinging across behind him and realized their timing was starting to get behind. The speed at which the platforms started sinking was catching up too. Now three platforms ahead of them the sinking was starting to happen. Either they were slowing down, the platforms were sinking faster, or both. They could see the end of the room was practically in front of them and the platform before the elevator didn't seem to start sinking at all. Actually, neither did the one before it either. Once they landed on it, they took the opportunity to stop and take a break. Bakura dropped Judai, who landed on his feet, and Bakura fell to his hands and knees.

“Dude… ugh… I can't- I just… I caaan’t! Ah, hah haaaah…” Bakura whined through labored breathing.

Judai patted a hand on Bakura’s back. Atem stared at the space between them and the elevator’s platform. The space was far wider than any of the other ones they crossed over and as he looked up he noticed there was no punching bag waiting to knock them into the wall. He realized the challenge at the end must be in crossing the nigh impossible gap, which certainly looked uncrossable for either of them. Atem let out a sigh and turned to Bakura.

“How… the hell… are you not… dying? Ugh!” Bakura asked, surprised that Atem was standing up straight and perfectly still.

“Bakura, you need to throw Judai again.” Atem stated.

Bakura let out a loud groan and stumbled to his feet, pushing his bangs back in a strange attempt to help him catch his breath. He let his hands fall to his sides and his bangs bounced back into place, looking like they weren't even touched.

“Fine! Come here, kid!” Bakura ordered.

Judai walked in front of Bakura and the teen picked him up under his arms from behind. Thanks to being almost completely out of what little stamina he had to begin with, Judai felt a lot heavier to Bakura than before.

“Here goes… nothing!”

Bakura launched Judai across with all his remaining strength. The boy flew across and started to fall down too soon. Bakura and Atem took notice, realizing Judai wasn't going to make it. Suddenly it looked like Judai bounced off… something… and made it the extra distance to land on the edge of the platform. He hastily got to his feet and tried to balance himself. He turned around and waved at the two teens.

“What the bloody hell was that?” Bakura wondered, too tired to express how confused he actually was.

“Yubel maybe…?” Atem suggested, not too sure himself.

Bakura crouched down and sat on the floor.

“You cross next, Bakura.” Atem told him.

“Eh? Ugh, there's no way I can make that. Besides, shouldn't we jump together?” Bakura said.

“Just do it. Trust me.” Atem stated.

Bakura didn't exactly like being ordered around, but he wasn't going to deny the fact that he did have at least some trust in Atem. He stood back up and walked over to the opposite edge of the platform. Behind them it was just another ball pit now. There was no way back unless they wanted to end up at the bottom like Yugi. Bakura took a few deep breaths. He actually felt a bit nervous about jumping, especially since he was sure he wouldn't make it. Nonetheless, he believed Atem so he ran across the platform and leapt over the ball pit beneath him. He was right, there's no way he would make it. He made a jump that would land him right into the ball pit and there was nothing he could about it other than accept it.

Bakura felt a shove against his back and looked over his shoulder to see Atem right behind him. Atem pushed Bakura best he could and bounced off of the taller teen. The push was enough to barely get Bakura to the other side. Although he was only holding on to the edge with his arms. Judai ran up and grabbed Bakura by the wrist in an attempt to help. He tried to climb up, but he couldn't get his feet to stick to the wall so he could climb in the first place. Something tugged on the collar of his shirt, which choked him a bit, but was enough to pull him up and fully onto the platform. He immediately turned around and looked down into the ball pit, where Atem was starting to sink.

“You bloody idiot! What were thinking!?” Bakura shouted.

“Both of us wouldn't have been able to make it. Besides, destiny told me you have to be the one to duel Kaiba, not me.” Atem calmly explained.

“Screw destiny!” Bakura reached his arm out to Atem. “Get over here, damn it!”

Atem stayed put and simply tried to keep his head above the ball pit. “Sorry, I don't interfere with destiny. I only help it happen. Don't worry though, if possible I'll look for Yugi and Ryo. I'll make sure they're safe.”

Bakura slammed a fist down and could only watch as Atem disappeared with a confident smile on his face. He turned to Judai and grabbed the boy by the shoulders.

“Tell Yubel to help! Please, kid!” Bakura practically begged.

“Uh, Y-Yubel says… she won't in-inter… f-fere with destiny eider.” Judai said.

Bakura groaned and stood up, staring down into the ball pit.

“Destiny isn't real!!” He shouted, hoping Atem could still hear him.

He said it mainly to reassure himself and justify his anger at Atem, but in truth, what Judai said made him start questioning the validity of destiny all together.

Downstairs, Jonouchi and Ryo were trying to hold Anzu back as she desperately tried to cling to the television screen.

“Oh Atem! No!” She cried out.

“Chill! He'll be here any second now!” Jonouchi said, trying to calm her down.

Sure enough, the ceiling opened up and this time Mokuba and Yugi got up from the couch so they wouldn't be fallen on. Atem fell through and prepared to land on a floor rather than a couch so he landed on the couch down on one knee and lost his balance, almost falling off. He was caught by Yugi, who tightly hugged him.

“Atem! That was an amazing self sacrifice! Too bad you couldn't go with Bakura to duel Kaiba, but he's still marching on so we got a chance to win this!” Yugi cheered.

Atem stared at Yugi with wide eyes and hugged his little brother back. “Oh Yugi, I was so worried about you.”

Despite how calm he was about it, Atem was actually thrilled far more than he knew how to express over seeing Yugi safe and sound. It wasn't something he would ever admit to, but even one minute away from Yugi was enough for Atem’s mental stability to start crumbling down around him. It took a lot of willpower for Atem to pretend that he was perfectly fine the whole time.

“Thank goodness you're alright, Atem! You had me so scared!” Anzu said with her hands clenched against her chest.

“Damn dude, I gotta admit, that was pretty badass what ya did fer Bakura. I bet Kaiba’s pissed ya didn't make it.” Jonouchi said, letting go of Anzu.

“I'm sorry you couldn't keep going, but thank you for helping Big Brother like that.” Ryo said and did a small bow with his head.

“There's no need for praises and ‘thank you’s. At the end there I heard destiny tell me Bakura was the one that needed to duel Kaiba, so I simply put all my faith in him and passed the torch. All I did was give up.” Atem explained, not actually meaning to sound overly modest.

“That's a horrible idea. Does he even duel?” Mokuba asked.

“Y-yes, he does. Both of us do. I-in fact, Big Brother was the best duelist at our old school. He never lost once so everyone at school just stopped dueling him. Plus he's the only person I've never been able to beat.” Ryo nervously defended his brother.

Mokuba glared at Ryo, who flinched and backed up so he was behind Jonouchi.

“I have full faith in Bakura, but that doesn't mean we can simply leave everything to him. Have you all been in this room the whole time?” Atem questioned.

Everyone nodded and Atem sighed.

“Is there any way out?” He asked.

Mokuba pointed to the door. “Its locked though. Seto left me in here so I can keep an eye on you all. I suppose that wasn't the smartest idea since I'm on your side.”

“Even though we're locked in, it's not too bad. We had tv earlier and we get brought these delicious pink lemonades by some butler guy.” Anzu explained.

Atem looked from the door to everyone else in the room with an expression between disbelief and disappointment. “You mean to tell me… There's been someone bringing you lemonade this whole time and you haven't used that as an opportunity to escape?”

Jonouchi and Anzu looked at each other and shrugged. “No…?” They both said.

“Is it alright if we breakout, Mokuba?” Atem asked.

“Sure, but if Seto asks, you threatened to hurt me in exchange for freedom.” Mokuba answered.

“That works. Now, here's my plan. Everyone listen closely.” Atem started.

Upstairs, Bakura kept staring at the same spot where Atem disappeared. Judai tugged at his pants leg to get his attention and Bakura finally looked away from the ball pit.

“Don't you have to, uh, keep going to Mr. Kaiba?” Judai asked.

“Yeah. Yeah I do, kid.” Bakura sighed. “I just… don't know if I can anymore.”

“Its okay! I'm-I'm still here. And Yubel too!” Judai tried to cheer up Bakura.

“Thanks. Welp, there's no way back so we just have to move forward.” Bakura said and scratched the back of his head.

Judai ran up and pressed the button for the elevator. The door opened and Judai ran in with Bakura walking in after him, pressing the button for the elevator to go up. Judai looked up at Bakura, knowing something was wrong with the teen but his young brain was incapable of fully understanding it. Judai pulled Yubel’s card out of his hoodie pocket and stared at it. He glanced up to Bakura and watched the figure behind him as it loomed over his shoulder.

“Kura. Here.” Judai said.

Bakura looked down at Judai and noticed the boy was holding up his Yubel card. He crouched down in front of Judai and looked at the card in his small hands.

“Are you… giving it to me?” Bakura wondered.

Judai nodded. “Tem-Tem said you were gonna d-duel Mr. Kaiba. So you should use Yubel for it. I don't duel with her anymore anyway. She is too, um, strong.”

Bakura gently took the card from Judai’s hands and looked at it. Just looking at it made him feel extremely uncomfortable and Kaiba’s signature on it only pissed him off. Nonetheless, he thought it was nice of Judai to do such a thing. After all the card was rarer than his own ace monster and like Judai said, pretty powerful. It even looked like a card that would fit in perfectly with his deck.

“Thanks, kid. I'll definitely use it.” Bakura said and ruffled Judai’s hair.

He pulled out his card deck from his pocket and slipped Yubel’s card into his deck. Judai smiled and the two stood there in the elevator as it continued to ascend. Finally it came to a stop and the doors opened. Judai was about to walk out when Bakura put a hand out to stop him.

“Let me check if it's safe first.” Bakura said.

Judai backed up a bit and Bakura walked out of the elevator. Once again the floor was nothing but a ball pit. However, there was a thin metal platform suspended in the air. Bakura looked up and there were plenty more metal platforms suspended above him. They were all connected by ladders that allowed access to the one above it.

“Great. It's like that very first Donkey Kong game… Kaiba, so help me if you make me have to jump over barrels I will stab you and no one will stop me.” Bakura complained to himself.

“Is it safe?” Judai asked.

“Yeah, but you better be prepared for tons of climbing.” Bakura told him.

Judai walked forward to leave the elevator, but the doors started to close on him. It surprised him enough that he stopped in his tracks while still inside.

“Kura!” Judai called out.

“Huh? Judai!” Bakura whipped around and was about to run into the elevator, but the doors fully closed before he could make it.

Bakura banged on the doors and tried to pry them open, but there was no way he had enough strength to do something like that.

“Judai!? Judai! Come on kiddo, say something! You're not gonna leave me all alone, ya know!” Bakura shouted and punched the doors, hurting his hand in the process.

He pressed his ear against the doors and heard the faint sound of the suspension cable, meaning the elevator was going down.

“Crap! Damn it Kaiba, he's just a kid!” Bakura slammed on the doors again.

“You can stop your pathetically useless efforts. Dear sweet Judai is safe where he's going. There's no cause for concerns.” A voice said.

It sounded like two different people, a man and a woman, and had a strange echo to it. Bakura flinched and turned around. There was no one there. So why was hearing a voice? He backed up against the elevator doors and looked around.

“My, my. I was hoping someone like you wouldn't be off put by my presence.” The voice spoke.

“What the bloody heeell?!” Bakura shouted and stared at the floor with wide eyes.

“Ugh, I might as well show myself. Look up.” The voice ordered.

Bakura nervously complied and slowly lifted his head. He came face to face with a person. They had pinkish-purple skin, one yellow and one teal colored eye, and half their hair was white while the other half was purple. They looked exactly like…

“Y-Y-Y-Yubeeeel!?” Bakura practically screamed.

“Yes. That is me. You don't need to scream it now.” Yubel said, looking clearly annoyed.

“You are real! Bloody hell! I always wanted something like this to happen but now that it is I think I'm more scared than anything!” Bakura shouted and rapidly shook his head.

Yubel simply stared at him, too annoyed by Bakura’s reaction to bother interrupting him. Yubel opted to wait for him to get it all out before saying anything else.

“I mean, I don't actually know what you are! You're a Duel Monsters card, right!? And yet Judai was right, you are here! Are you some kind of demon possessing the card and taking the form of Yubel!? Or is there a curse on the card that made you real!? Or is Judai special and he brought you to life or something!? If Ryo were here I'm sure he'd be ecstatic to see something like you! It's kinda been a dream of his, well, mine too but I sorta wanted to meet a demon that would bow down to me and do my bidding!” Bakura’s shouting changed more from confused and scared to confused and intrigued.

Yubel started to look confused as well. “Are you done?”

“I think!? I don't know!” Bakura quickly rummaged his hands through his hair in frustration. “Rggh! Start explaining! Now!”

“Oh my. You're the forceful kind, huh? I like that.” Yubel said with a flirtatious smile.

Bakura flinched, feeling a bit disgusted, and tried to back up further against the elevator doors.

“I'd rather you didn't.” He bluntly requested.

“Heh, heh. Now, I suppose you already know my name, but lets do a proper introduction anyway. I am Yubel. I am neither card, nor demon. However, I guess it would be easier on your human brain to say that I am a living card. I reside inside it and am tied to it, but I can take a physical form and interact with your plane of existence to some extent. Although, I do suppose on some level I could be considered a demon. Judai can even use his ability to make me like all his other card spirits.” Yubel explained.

“W-what ability?” Bakura wondered.

“Sweet darling Judai can summon forth the spirit from within each and every single Duel Monsters card. Isn't he so unique? Of course only he can see them. Me, on the other hand, I can be seen by those who posses my card. Which, for the time being, is you.” Yubel pointed a long finger nail at Bakura’s chest and snickered.

Bakura again felt disgusted and wanted to be as far away from Yubel as possible.

“How do you know Judai is safe?” He asked.

“Hm? Because everyone else is being held in a comfy room several floors below. I can only imagine that's where he's being taken.” Yubel answered.

“So Ryo’s okay!? And Atem and Yugi too?” Bakura wondered.

“Of course~ I may be _very_ protective of Judai, but I'm not worried since everyone else seems to be taken care of rather nicely. They've even been getting free lemonade.” Yubel told him.

“R-really? Those bastards. Eh, I don't even like lemonade anyway.” Bakura mumbled.

“Well, _Bakura_ , if you want to get back to them as soon as possible then you'll want to start climbing. Don't worry though, I'll keep you company~” Yubel said in a sly manner.

Bakura looked up to the top platform, realizing it would be a long climb.

“Ugh, great. I'm not fit enough for all this crap…” He grumbled and started walking past Yubel.

Yubel simply floated along next to Bakura as he hopped onto the platform. He paused, waiting for it to stop shaking so he could make his way across. He was slow and had his arms slightly raised out to make sure he kept his balance.

“Well this is going to take awhile.” Yubel commented.

“You wanna pick me up and carry me to the top? We'll get this over much quicker that way.” Bakura said, sounding annoyed.

“Heheh. I can't interact with you like that in this form. Judai maybe, but you'll have to do this one without my help.” Yubel said.

Bakura just groaned and reached the ladder, climbing up it to the next level. He glanced over at Yubel for a moment before looking away, feeling quite uncomfortable. It didn't have anything to do with Yubel being inhuman, but rather with Yubel’s appearance. One side of Yubel was clearly masculine while the other side was obviously feminine. It made Bakura conflicted on how to feel. He was weary around women from several years of practically being attacked by them when he was younger. Although, that didn't make him afraid of Yubel, he was simply confused.

“So, Yubel. What, uh… what do I call you as far as he or she, or whatever, goes? I can't figure it out.” Bakura asked.

“Oh how rude of you to ask! But, if you must know, precious Judai refers to me as ‘she’. He's a bit too young so the concept seems to go over his little head. You can call me that, or anything else. I don't mind either way.” Yubel explained.

“Huh. Fine then, ‘she’ it is. Saying something else would only make things confusing.” Bakura said and walked down the next platform.

“Now I have a question for you.” Yubel announced.

“Um, okay… Go ahead, shoot.” Bakura said.

“What are you?” She asked rather bluntly.

The question confused Bakura and he stopped in his tracks, looking at Yubel who was floating around him in a circle.

“What do you mean what am I? I'm a guy? I'm albino? I'm Eurasian?” Bakura guessed, trying to figure out what Yubel meant.

“No, none of that. Well, that does explain why you're so sickly pale.” Bakura glared at her. “What I mean is, are you fully human? Because I sense something within you that isn't.”

Bakura froze and started continuing to walk across the platform, away from Yubel. She caught up with him and stared him down while he climbed the next ladder, making him feel awkward.

“Of course I'm human so whatever you're sensing can't be me. I think I would know if I wasn't anyway. I don't even know how that'd be possible.” Bakura denied.

He genuinely believed he was completely human, so Yubel’s words, while he didn't believe them, concerned him at least. She was probably just messing with him as revenge for being mean to Judai earlier.

“Are you so sure of that? Then what is this darkness I'm sensing within your soul? I sensed it in that adorable little brother of yours too. Although it's weaker with him than you. I would saaay… about ten percent for you and five percent for him.” Yubel told him.

At that, Bakura thought Yubel might have been referring to some kind of personification of his sins or something along those lines. After all, Bakura had done some pretty terrible things before and Ryo was no innocent saint like he led people to believe. Yeah, that had to be it. At least, he thought until Yubel started talking again.

“It's a very demonic kind of darkness. It's something that is almost darker than me. I'm sure if it were complete then it would truly be a demonic force feared by everyone.” She added.

“Okay! I get it. You can stop. I don't know what you're talking about so just drop it.” Bakura demanded and walked away.

Yubel simply grinned.

Downstairs, Atem was finalizing his plan. Everyone got in their positions on the couch and Atem hid next to the door so that when it was opened he wouldn't be spotted. He nodded his head and Anzu raised her empty glass of lemonade.

“Heeeey! We need more lemonade in here!” She called out.

Right on cue, the same man as before unlocked the door and walked into the room holding a tray of freshly made lemonades. He approached the group on the couch and the only ones that had actually been drinking it, Anzu and Yugi, picked up the full glasses and placed their empty glasses down on the tray.

“Thanks!” Yugi said and eyed Atem who pulled a lighter out of his pocket.

The man turned around to leave, but stopped when he saw Atem standing in his way. Atem held the lighter up and the man flinched when he saw the flame. He tried to back up, but bumped into Jonouchi who was standing behind him. Atem lunged forward and grabbed the man by the tie, holding the flame up close to his face.

“Hand over the keys or you're headed to the burn ward.” Atem threatened.

He nervously reached into his pocket and held out the key for the door. Jonouchi snatched it from his hand.

“Smart choice. Everyone out.” Atem ordered.

Yugi, Ryo, Anzu, and Mokuba all quickly headed out of he room and Jonouchi waited by the door. Atem released the man’s tie, but not before setting the bottom edge of it on fire. The man dropped the tray of glasses, which made a loud crashing sound, and he frantically tried to pat out the fire spreading up his tie. Atem quickly left the room followed by Jonouchi, who started to lock it, but stopped. Standing in front of the group of teens was another man. Next to him was Judai who was holding his hand and looked like he wanted to cry. 

“Tem-Tem!” Judai cheered when he saw Atem and ran up to him, grabbing his shirt.

Without asking any questions, Jonouchi grabbed the other man by the collar and yanked him inside the room then shut it, locking the door.

“Sorry! You'll be compensated in your next paycheck!” Mokuba shouted at them through the door.

“Judai’s okay!” Ryo said happily and bent down to Judai’s level. “What happened?”

“The, uh, big doors closed and I couldn't leave. They opened and dat man said he would take me to-to, uh, you guys.” Judai explained.

“Judai’s lack of understanding stranger danger aside, where do we go from here, Mokuba?” Atem questioned.

“Down the hall, to the right is the elevator. We can take it all the way up to where Seto will be waiting to start the duel.” Mokuba answered and got a head start to the elevator.

Everyone followed after him, but Atem lagged behind a bit due to Judai clinging on to him.

“Um, Judai. May I ask that you kindly let go of me. I can't quite walk properly with you holding onto me like this.” Atem requested.

Anzu stopped and walked up to Judai. “You can hold my hand sweetie.” She offered.

Judai shook his head and ran up to Ryo, latching onto his hand. “He looks like Kura.”

“Um… I don't think anyone's ever wanted to be around me _because_ I look like my brother.” Ryo commented.

“Everyone stop stalling. We have to hurry. Maybe we can stop the duel before it starts.” Mokuba said and kept walking.

Everyone caught up to him and made it to the elevator. They all crowded in and Ryo picked up Judai so there would be more room. It would be a long wait until they reached the top floor.

Upstairs, Bakura was still climbing and Yubel was still floating up with him. Bakura got off a ladder and dropped to his knees.

“Damn! This is so tiring… My legs hurt, my arms hurt! Everything's going to hurt so bad tomorrow!” Bakura complained.

Yubel crossed her legs and looked like she was sitting despite actually floating. “You don't get out much, do you?”

“No! My mother tries to keep me inside during the day because of the Sun.” Bakura responded, obviously annoyed.

“Well she apparently didn't do that today since you're here in this predicament.”

“It’s April. It's that weird time between Winter and Spring so it's not hot out or even all that sunny. Besides, I hate being cooped up inside so I take whatever opportunity I can get to be outside.”

“You should keep walking. Something interesting is happening.”

Bakura looked over at Yubel and stood up.

“What are you talking about? What's happening?” He asked.

Yubel giggled and flew ahead a bit. “You'll see if you make it to the top fast enough~”

Bakura groaned and began walking across the platform again. He leaned to the side and looked up, trying to get an idea of how much he had left to climb. It seemed like he was a third of the way there, which he wasn't happy about. He wasn't even half way and he was already getting too tired to keep going. Granted, the earlier parts of the course had worn him out before he even got to the current floor. At least he wasn't in a race against time.

Below him and loud clunking sound could be heard. Bakura looked down, which made him a bit dizzy considering how high up he was. The bottom platform disconnected and was sinking into the ball pit. Bakura’s eyes widened and he dashed for the ladder to the next level.

“Crap! Crap! Crap! I'm gonna be pissed if there's a girl named Catherine waiting for me at the top!” Bakura complained.

“You do say odd things.” Yubel noted, completely unfazed by the extra layer of danger.

“Shut uuup!” Bakura shouted and made it off the ladder.

He glanced back over the edge. The fallen platform was almost completely sunken in the ball pit. Nothing happened to the level above it yet, so he let out a sigh of relief.

“I wouldn't relax just yet if I were you.” Yubel warned.

As if on cue, the next level disconnected with a loud metallic sound and dropped into the ball pit. It made contact with the other platform and made a bang sound, which caused Bakura to flinch.

“I hate my life.” He grumbled and quickly ran across the platform he was on.

“There is a time increment of one minute between each drop. From the bottom you would have thirty five minutes to make it to the top. Starting now you have thirty two and a half minutes to make it to the top. Since you've gotten a head start you can make it at an average of twenty five minutes. Give or take probably two minutes if you slow down or speed up.” Yubel analyzed.

“Twenty five minutes!? Crap! So, like, a minute for each level!?” Bakura complained.

“It takes you thirty seconds at a walking pace to cross one if you don't stop. It takes you twelve seconds at a running pace and an average of fifteen seconds on the ladders. That's between twenty seven and forty five seconds for each level. You could probably make it in under twenty minutes if you run and don't stop.” She further explained.

Bakura frantically climbed the ladder and got off at the top.

“Seriously!? There's no way I can keep this up for like twenty minutes straight! I have terrible stamina and I've been out of it since the last floor! Are you sure you can't do something!?” Bakura nervously questioned.

Yubel smiled and shook her head. “I can't carry you to the top and I can't stop the plates from falling.”

“Agh! Kaibaa! You hear me!? I'm gonna fuck you up and your entire stupid fucking theme park!!” Bakura shouted.

Yubel snickered. “He's not watching anymore. He has left so he can wait for you on the final floor above this one.”

Bakura groaned and regretted even yelling anything to begin with. The next platform disconnected and hit the one that fell before it. The metallic sound echoed throughout the room.

“Ugh, I guess it's good Ryo or the kid aren't here. They'd never make it up this…” Bakura mumbled and climbed the next ladder.

It was silent between the two for a while as Bakura made it across the next level and to the ladder. He climbed up and started to run across when an even louder crashing sound almost startled him. He glanced down to see that the bottom three platforms all fell at once.

“Aaaaagh!! You've _got_ to be kidding me!!” Bakura yelled and made a mad dash for the ladder.

“Oh my. I wasn't expecting that. Let me recalculate for you then. In the event that that was the only occurrence… you have fifteen minutes at most. In the event that it will go by threes from now on… eight minutes.” Yubel observed.

Bakura screamed and Yubel let out a joyful laugh.

“You're enjoying this, aren't you!?” Bakura accused her and ran across the next platform.

“Maaaaybe~ Hahaha! Watching you run for your life like you could actually die is the perfect kind of amusement for me. Consider this payback for telling me to ‘suck it’.”

“Listen here, bitch! If I fall off and land on one of those plates I _could_ die down there!”

“Oh? You mean if you fell… like this?”

Yubel shoved a foot against the platform Bakura was running across and tilted it. Bakura tried to balance himself, but lost his footing and slipped off. He grabbed the edge and held on for dear life.

“Are you really going to be so petty that you'll let me die like this!? What is wrong with you!? Fucking help me!!” Bakura shouted and tried to pull himself up.

“Oh calm down. I was only trying to scare you.” Yubel claimed.

She tugged on the collar of his shirt and lifted him up the best she could since interacting with the human plane wasn't easy for her. Bakura scrambled to get back up on the platform like a cat trying to escape a bath. Once back on he stayed on his hands and knees, waiting for the platform to stop wobbling so he could stand up.

“You just about did more than scare me, damn it!” Bakura complained.

“You yell too much.” Yubel stated.

The sound of another dropping platform echoed in the room and both Bakura and Yubel looked down. It was another three that disconnected. Bakura whined and got to his feet. He tried to forget about how much his body was shaking from the life or death situation Yubel put him in and he just started running again, reaching the ladder and climbing up.

“Ugh, how much time left?” He asked.

“Mmm… Five minutes? You could make it with seconds to spare if you don't test my patience again. Hehe~” Yubel answered.

“Gah!” Bakura yelped a bit higher pitched than his voice already was. 

As he got off the ladder he looked up to see how much climbing he had left to do. Thankfully all his frantic running got him another third of the way there, if not more. Maybe he really could make it in five minutes.

“Right, okay. I just gotta have faith in myself. Just gotta have faith in myself. Just- just gotta have faith. Everything’s on me. Atem put his faith in me. I gotta duel Kaiba. I gotta get back to Ryo. I just gotta do all this myself.” Bakura muttered to himself.

“If you have time to chant a useless mantra for the sake of self confidence then you have time to run faster.” Yubel advised him.

“I don't need your snide remarks every other second, you know!” Bakura snarked at her as he got on the next ladder.

“And I don't need you aggressively shouting every word out of your mouth.” Yubel snarked back.

“I'm panicking! I can't help it!” He shouted.

Bakura continued to run across as another three platforms fell off. There were only two underneath him, meaning that in another minute the one he was currently on would fall into the ball pit below. He had just under one minute to make it up the next three platforms. He reached the ladder and climbed, ran across, reached the ladder and climbed, ran across, reached the ladder and climbed. With every step he took Bakura was afraid it'd be his last. The disconnections were already caught up with him, but he was finally so close. There were only a few levels left. He just had to make it to the top before time ran out.

Yubel joyfully watched Bakura as he ran for his life. For a guy who seemed to be running on less than fumes he was doing a good job. Although, Yubel decided it would be more fun not to inform him that she miscalculated by a few seconds so Bakura actually had slightly less time than he thought. She was getting more of a kick from his unawareness anyway.

Bakura was finally on the second to last platform. The previous three had already dropped and he was too focused on running and panicking to keep track of exactly how long he had left. He couldn't believe his body hadn't collapsed on him yet. Deep down he actually felt a little proud of himself for choosing not to give up all on his own. Despite his hatred for Kaiba, Bakura initially believed he was simply tagging along with Atem and Yugi to rescue their friends. Sure, he wanted to get revenge on Kaiba for the notebook fiasco and subsequent Ryo incident, but he was content with letting Atem duel Kaiba then hopefully stabbing Kaiba afterwards. In a perfect world they'd even burn down Kaiba Land, but Bakura hadn't planned on being the one to duel Kaiba. He wasn't sure if his deck matched up well against Kaiba’s. He didn't even know what Kaiba’s deck actually was so there was no way he could prepare for it in his head. Whatever it was, Bakura still had the utmost confidence in his deck and his beloved ace card. With the addition of Yubel to his deck as well, Bakura felt even better about his odds. The only problem was that he wouldn't be able to duel Kaiba at all if he didn't make it to the top.

Bakura finally reached the very last platform and as he got off the ladder he was relieved to see another ladder in the middle rather than all the way at the other end. It led up to a closed latch on the ceiling, which most likely led to the next floor.

“Finally.” Bakura sighed.

Yubel grinned from ear to ear as she watched Bakura run towards the ladder. Her eyes glanced to the thick cables holding up the platform and watched them disconnect themselves from the ceiling.

Bakura suddenly got a weird feeling in his gut, like being on a plane when it goes down a bit too fast. He felt almost weightless. The moment his hand reached for the ladder he dropped down and missed the bar. Bakura finally realized he was just a few moments too late.

Too late to duel Kaiba.

Too late to get revenge for himself and Ryo.

Too late to rescue Anzu and Jonouchi.

And too late to prove that Atem was right to put his faith in Bakura.

“I'm sorry guys…” Bakura muttered.

He closed his eyes and tried to brace himself for what he assumed would a very painful landing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep! That's right! A part threeeee!!! Yes, yes, I know. You're ready for the Mariks, I'm ready for the Mariks, we're all ready for the Mariks! We've waited this long, we can wait a bit longer. Plus I had no idea that the chapter would get so long before it hit the duel. Sorry, not sorry, for the cheap cliffhanger either :/
> 
> Ya know what though, the build up is important with these beginning exposition chapters. There's an actual overarching plot in this fic other than the romance anyway so that needs to be addressed first. Bakura needs the slight character development before romance happens too. He is not a dateable(or even likeable) person like this.
> 
> (P.P.S. I finished watching VRAINS and I'm literally crying!!)


End file.
